


Mighty Morphin Six

by WorldOfOurOwn



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Power Rangers Fusion, Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Manipulation, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Light Angst, Slut Shaming, Swearing, Team as Family, Underage Smoking, also a mention of, and later on there's some, but seriously their colors match the power rangers exactly like yo, how could i pass up that opportunity, i guess i'll add tags as i go along cause i'm not exactly sure where i'm going with this, if i go anywhere with it lol, in a later chapter there's reference to, sorry i forgot but i should add warnings in the tags, this might be the stupidest thing i've done lol, typical in power rangers not six lol, you know all the baggage that henry gives
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-04 15:19:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 64,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20473190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorldOfOurOwn/pseuds/WorldOfOurOwn
Summary: None of them had really planned on ever being friends with each other, as much as you might think that having the same ex-boyfriend would be a great conversation starter, but having to fight analiendemon that's trying to take over the world has its ways of bringing people together.Power rangers au with plenty of high school drama, because it makes sense that six high-schoolers be in charge of saving the world. You don't need to know anything about power rangers bc I certainly don't know anything about it lol.





	1. but now they're ex-girlfriends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up, I'm American, so this will be American lol. If this bothers you that much, then I can edit stuff if you comment what you want me to change, but uhhhh otherwise I'm too lazy to google how British people live.
> 
> First chapter is really just an intro to everyone because this is not historically accurate, as you may have guessed from it being a hs au lol. I took liberties because I had no idea how to make this make sense in a high school setting.

“And what exactly do we have here?” the principal asked, his arms crossed in front of his chest. Before him sat Anne Boleyn and two other boys, all looking equally pissed off.

“She started it!” one boy spoke up, who already had a bruise forming on his left eye. “The bitch just hit me out of the blue.”

“Oh please,” Anne scoffed. “Like you weren’t asking for it.”

“Stop. Just, stop.” The principal closed his eyes and breathed out through his nose. “Did you throw the first hit, Anne?”

“Oh, c’mon,” Anne said, throwing her hands up in the hair. “They provoked me! They were talking shit about—”

“I don’t care what they were talking about. Who threw the first hit?” he asked, staring her down.

Anne rolled her eyes and huffed. “I did.”

The principal pursed his lips and looked towards the two boys in the room. “You’re both excused. Get back to class.”

They nodded and left the room, curling their lips at Anne who was pointedly ignoring them.

“Be honest with me, Anne, what’s going on? I mean, fighting? Really? I don’t understand what’s happening with you. You used to be such a good student.” Anne continued to remain silent, staring at her bruised and scraped knuckles, and the principal sighed. “I’ve been forgiving your tardies and absences, but physical violence is a serious offence. That’s punishable by suspension.”

At this, Anne’s head shot up in alarm. “But I already tried telling you! They were saying shit about my cousin. I couldn’t just let that slide.”

The principal rubbed his forehead with his hand. “Okay, okay, I get it. That still doesn’t excuse what you did. You can’t go resorting to violence whenever you disagree with what people say.”

“It wasn’t just a simple _disagreement_,” Anne spat. She was about to continue when the principal held up his hand and interrupted her.

“Look Anne. I’ll let you off with detention, this time. But if this ever happens again, I will have to take more serious action,” he said, and he walked around behind his desk. He pulled out a slip of pink paper and scribbled a few notes on it before passing it to Anne. “Here. This is your detention slip. You’ll need to get it signed by your parents. Detention is every Saturday from 8 to 12, and you’ll be attending it for a month. Got it?”

Anne took the paper and nodded. “Is that it?”

The principal paused and said, “Just … know that there are counsellors to help you with any problems you have.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Anne said, getting up to leave. As soon as she was out the door, she rolled her eyes and muttered, “Fucking bullshit.”

\---

A shrill whistle pierced the fall air, as the woman on the side of field shouted, “Alright, ladies! Practice is done! Hurry up and clean up the field so we can all get out of here faster.”

Anna let out a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat off her forehead, placing her foot down on the soccer ball she had previously been dribbling. In one swift move, she slid her toe under the ball and lifted it up into the air, catching it with her hands. Around her, she could see her teammates taking similar actions as they all moved to put their balls away.

She looked towards the bleachers and saw Kat pulling out her earbuds, clearly having heard the whistle through whatever she had been listening to before. Kat smiled at her, which Anna returned before moving to putting away the cones they had set up around the field.

Once the team had finished clearing the field, Anna grabbed her bag from the locker room and headed out to meet up with Kat.

“Hey Kat. What are you doing out here?” Anna said, clearly happy to see her friend.

“Cheer practice got out early,” Kat said. She was still wearing her cheer uniform, a sports bag also slung over her shoulder. “Figured I would just come out here and wait for you.”

“That’s sweet of you. How are you doing?”

“Fine, I suppose,” Kat shrugged. “Practice went alright, and people mostly left me alone, so.”

Anna nodded, and they fell into a comfortable silence as they walked to Anna’s car. It was only after they had dumped all their stuff in the backseat and sat in their seats in the front that Anna spoke up again.

“So,” she said, starting the car up. She paused, unsure of how to continue with the conversation. Kat had an amused look on her face.

“Yes?”

“How do you and Boleyn know each other?” Anna said, deciding to just go for it. She snuck a glance over at Kat, whose eyes had suddenly widened. Her mouth was slightly open in shock.

“W-what do you—”

“I mean, it’s been going around school that at lunch Anne got in a fight with some guys who were talking about you.” Kat’s brows had furrowed, and she was biting her lip. When Kat didn’t say anything, Anna continued, “I guess everyone just figured that she wasn’t the type of person to get into fights over someone she didn’t know.”

There was a moment of silence before Kat spoke up, “Well maybe you just don’t know her that well.”

“You’re right. I don’t. I mean, I only know the rumors, and you know how reliable those can be.” There was another pause, and Anna said, “Sorry, I probably shouldn’t have asked. Don’t worry about it.”

“No! I mean, it’s not … I probably should have told you sooner,” Kat said, rubbing her arm.

“Kat, you don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.” Anna’s voice was soft, and she looked over to Kat, smiling as they locked eyes. Kat gave a small smile back.

“I do want to tell you, though.” She took a deep breath and released it. “Honestly, I’m as surprised as anyone else that Anne stood up for me. We … she’s my cousin.”

Anna’s eyebrows shot up. “Cousins? That’s … not exactly what I expected,” she admitted.

Kat gave a small laugh. “Yeah, well we’re not that close. Ever since she, you know, cheated on Henry, she’s become the black sheep of the family. Everyone told me to avoid her, and I did. Though now that I know what Henry is like, I think maybe we’ve all been a bit unfair to her.”

Anna hummed in understanding.

“I didn’t think she cared about me anymore though,” Kat admitted. “I mean we haven’t spoken since back when we were kids, and I’m mostly the one to blame for that.”

“Hey, come on,” Anna said. “That’s not fair to yourself. You had your reasons, and I'm sure she understands. After all, I doubt she would've gotten into a fight for you if she was upset with you.”

“Yeah, I guess… thanks Anna.”

“Yeah, yeah, no need to thank me for stating the obvious.” Anna grinned. “Thanks for telling me.”

Kat grinned back at Anna. It wasn’t long until conversation sparked up once again for the rest of the car ride, but through it all, Kat couldn’t stop thinking about her cousin Anne.

\---

Catherine could not stop thinking about Anne. She huffed in frustration.

“I mean, seriously. Can you believe her?” she said, pacing her room. “She always has to make a mess of things, doesn’t she?”

Catherine Parr lay on her stomach on Aragon’s bed. She was writing notes in a notebook, humming agreement every now and then. When it was clear that Catherine was done ranting, Cathy looked up.

“Why do you care so much, though?” Cathy asked. “I mean, yeah, there’s the whole she stole your boyfriend, but that was almost two years ago. Why does it matter if she’s picking fights all of a sudden?”

“It _matters_, Cathy, because she can't just pretend like she all of a sudden cares about any of Henry’s exes,” Catherine practically snarled. “So, what, it’s okay if she steals Henry from me, but if anyone says anything about Katherine Howard, suddenly they’re out of line? And what about Jane, huh? Jane had just as hard a time, but no, I guess that must not have mattered.”

Cathy sighed, closing her journal. “You know very well that Katherine and Jane's situations are very different. I’m sure Anne has her reasons,” she tried to reason. “Can’t you just let it go?

“No, I can’t just let it go. You don’t understand what she did to me,” Catherine said, closing her eyes.

Cathy gave Catherine a look of sympathy. “Let’s just think about something else, how about? Like, have you noticed how half of us have the same name? You think it’s like a weird fetish or something?”

Catherine stopped pacing and barked out a laugh. “I would’ve agreed with you, except for the fact that like half of our class is named Catherine or Catalina or Kaitlynn or whatever,” she said, waving her hand in the air. "I think all the moms in our town just stopped talking to each other for a year and realized too late they'd all picked the same name and all of its variants." 

“Fair point, but I still think it's kinda freaky. And then there's also Anne and Anna. Next thing you know, he'll be asking out that freshman Jane out.”

“Ugh you're so right," she said, scrunching her nose up. “You know, he’s kind of a dick.”

“Kind of? He's a _huge _dick. And it took you this long to realize?” Cathy said, raising an eyebrow.

“No, of course not.” Catherine scowled and moved to sit next to Cathy. “I just don’t like to think about it that often, so when I do it really hits me.”

Cathy nodded, and they fell into a silence until Catherine nodded towards the journal. “So, what are you working on? Some great novel that’ll blow all of our minds?”

“It’s a secret,” Cathy said with a smirk, grabbing it and slipping into her backpack.

“Oh come on, why do you need to keep secrets around me?”

“Don't worry it's nothing bad. It's just in very early stages. I’ll tell you about it later when I’ve worked on it some more, alright? But right now we should probably get a start on our homework. We've been putting it off for long enough.”

Catherine looked at Cathy through squinted eyes before sighing. “Alright fine. But I’m holding you to your word that you’ll show me later.”

\---

Jane opened the front door to her house and called out, “I’m home!”

A faint “Coming!” came from a room upstairs, soon followed by the noise of footsteps descending the staircase. Her mother appeared, holding a baby boy in her arms with a smile.

“Hey there,” Jane whispered towards the baby, eagerly reaching out to take him from her mom.

“So how was school?” her mother asked, passing the baby over.

“Oh, you know. The usual. And how was Edward today? Feeling better?” Jane asked, her worry coming through in furrowed eyebrows as she glanced at her mom.

“Yes, of course, he’s making a splendid recovery. Still a bit fussy today, but I’m sure he’ll be fine by the end of tomorrow.”

“Thank you so much for looking over him,” Jane said. “I know that taking time off work is stressful for you, but—”

“Honey, don’t even mention it. Speaking of work though, I forgot to tell you, but I need to meet up with a coworker in a little bit. Working from home has been a little rough, so I really need to make it to this meeting. I’ll be home late, but if you don’t mind waiting, I can bring home dinner for the both of us?” her mom said, already moving to grab the keys from the counter and slipping on a thin coat.

“Of course. I’ll see you later tonight. Love you.”

“Love you too, sweetie. Oh, and don’t forget to feed Edward in about an hour! I fed him a little before noon,” her mom shouted out, closing the door right behind her.

And with that Jane was alone, or almost alone. The baby that she bounced in her arm was frowning up at her but looked healthy overall, unlike earlier in the week. He had spent one whole day crying his lungs out, and as unhappy as he looked, at least now he wasn’t complaining as much.

“Hey there,” Jane said, moving her face closer to Edward. “Missed your mama, huh? C’mon, let’s head back upstairs so we can get some work done as well.”

She placed him into his crib and put her schoolbag down on the floor next to it.

“You can hear all about the cool things your mom is learning in class. Sound exciting?” Jane said, laughing at the nonsensical babbling that the baby was managing to accomplish. He sat up and moved to the edge of the crib, following Jane’s movements as she brought out her notes.

“Well I’m glad that you seem to be more interested in this than me,” she said, with a smile. The more that Jane spoke, the more relaxed and content Edward seemed to be. “What should we start with. Mathematics or English?”

She held up two different notebooks in front of Edward and watched his eyes look between them. He made grabby hands towards the one in red, and she put down the other green notebook.

“Of course it would be math. It basically runs in the family, though I think it skipped over me,” she said, scrunching up her nose. “Maybe you can help me with my homework, yeah?”

She pulled out her textbook and opened it up. “Now let’s see. What have we been doing in class this past week …”

Edward looked at her, so enthusiastic to just hear her voice, and Jane supposed she could learn to enjoy math if it made her Edward so happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, that's right. Jane is the only who gets to keep her child because daughters are so forgettable. 
> 
> Also, I was mapping out the timeline of when Henry dated each one, and I was like wow he really just went through six girls in the span of like, three years. Dude's gotta chill.
> 
> Comment if you liked it or hated it or just wanted to talk about your day. Or you can tell me to stop writing this and write something else lol. I enjoy feedback in any form.


	2. set in stone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I clever enough to make all the chapter titles song references? Probably not but here we are.

Jane pulled into the nearly empty parking lot, the few other cars scattered in the lot belonging to faculty, or so she assumed. She parked close to the school entrance and let her car idle for a moment. With a glance to the clock, she sighed. She had arrived astoundingly early to Saturday school and had about thirty minutes of waiting ahead of her. She planned on staying in her car, until she saw a figure that she recognized approaching the front steps.

Jane shut the engine off and moved to leave her car. The wind was still a little chilly and rushed to greet her as soon as the door opened. The silence was almost spooky, since she was only ever used to school being a noisy place, but it was soon broken by the slam of her car door. The person walking on the sidewalk turned her head towards Jane’s direction.

“Jane?” Anne said, stumbling a bit. Clearly, she was surprised to see Jane at such a setting, and Jane gave a sheepish smile and waved.

“Hey, Anne.” Jane locked her car and half-jogged towards Anne, who had finally reached the steps and had stopped to wait. Jane almost regretted stepping outside, having acted impulsively, as she suddenly realized that Anne might very well hate her. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“I’m the one who should be saying that,” Anne said with a small smile on her face, her eyebrows raised in surprise. “Never expected the goody-two-shoes Jane to end up here.”

“Well, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’ve become quite the rebel in the past year,” Jane joked, and Anne laughed in response. At the sound of that, Jane began to relax a little more, a smile forming on her face.

“Of course. It’s been the talk of the town,” Anne teased in response. “But honestly, I’m sure whatever they’ve got you in for is complete bullshit.”

“It’s just cause I skipped a lot of school,” Jane said with a shrug. “Sucks, but it makes sense.”

“Not even, though. This school’s got some seriously fucked up priorities. Like, duh you missed school. You have a fucking baby. You’d figure they would’ve cut you some slack, like honestly,” Anne scoffed, rolling her eyes.

Not many people liked to bring up Edward, and Jane was almost surprised at how easily Anne talked about it. Then again, Anne was never really one for watching what she was saying, so really it all checked out.

“Yeah … and I heard about your fight,” she said. She glanced at Anne’s bruised knuckles, covered in scabs. “I’m not usually one to condone violence, but they kind of had it coming.”

“Exactly!” Anne said, her face brightening at Jane’s approval. “And the principal acted like it was all my fault. So stupid.”

Jane let out a small chuckle as they fell into a brief silence.

“It’s good to see you again,” Anne finally said, and Jane looked away, her smile faltering a little.

“Is it really? I mean, after everything I did …” Jane trailed off, unsure how to continue.

“You know me. I’m not one to hold grudges,” Anne said, and Jane laughed.

“Anne, I do know you, which is how I know that you literally _love_ holding grudges.”

“Well, then maybe I never had a grudge with you in the first place.” Anne shrugged. She grinned at Jane like it was easy, and maybe it was. Suddenly, Jane felt as though she had never really known Anne at all.

Eventually, other students began to pass by them, and Jane checked her phone for the time.

“I guess it’s time to go in, huh?” Anne asked, adjusting the bag by her side.

“Unfortunately,” Jane said. Though she’d never thought about it before, she suddenly wished to be friends with Anne again.

Detention passed by quicker than she’d expected, as she spent the majority of the time trying and failing to catch up on all the work she had missed. Anne, on the other hand, napped the entire time, only waking up when Jane nudged her to tell her that detention had ended.

“How are you still tired? It’s already noon,” Jane chastised Anne, who was just finishing a huge yawn and was busy rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

“Oh please, noon is barely anything at all. If it were my choice, the day would start at 3 in the afternoon.” Anne stumbled a bit, her foot having caught on a bit of raised concrete because she’d been dragging her feet. Jane shook her head but didn’t say anything.

When they reached the curb, Anne turned to face Jane and said, “I guess I’ll see you around?”

Jane hesitated for a moment before saying, “Actually, you walked here right?” Anne gave a slow nod, and Jane continued, “Well, did you want a ride home?”

Anne looked towards Jane’s car and said, “I’m not exactly headed back home.”

“Well, I can drop you off wherever you’d like! I mean, really, it’s no problem. It’s not like I’m in a rush to get anywhere,” Jane said.

Anne looked back at Jane and back at her car. Jane was about to take back her offer when Anne said, “Yeah, sure. Why not?”

Jane let out a relieved breath. Anne followed behind her as they headed to her car. Once they had seated themselves and Jane had started up the engine, Jane asked “So where shall I take you?”

“I hope the forest isn’t too out the way for you,” Anne said, a grin beginning to grow on her face.

\---

“Why did I agree to this?” Catherine moaned. The sunlight filtered through the trees, dancing across Catherine and Cathy as they walked along the dirt path.

“Because you love me too much to let me walk in the woods alone,” Cathy said, turning around to give Catherine a smug smile.

“Yeah, but couldn’t you have found inspiration in a coffee shop or a park?” Catherine wiped sweat off her face in disgust. “Is the forest really that much more poetic?”

Cathy hummed in thought, “Not really, but I dunno. I just had a feeling that I should come here.”

Catherine gave a small “Hmph,” but left it at that. As annoyed as she was, she was partially used to Cathy’s odd excursions every now and then to the random places in town. When the muses struck, you just had to follow them, or so Cathy liked to say. Still, the forest was a new one. Most of the places Cathy took them didn’t require so much hiking to get where they needed to be.

“Okay,” Cathy said, and Catherine sighed in relief as they stopped walking. “This place feels good. Let’s stop here.”

Catherine looked around, unimpressed by the view. “Why here? It looks exactly the same as the rest of the forest we’ve been walking through for the past ten minutes.”

“Do you want to walk more?” Cathy said, giving Catherine a look.

With a huff, Catherine huffed a quiet “No,” and Cathy sat down by the side of the path. Catherine felt disturbed at the idea of sitting on dirt and decided to stay standing. She moved to stand next to Cathy, looking over her shoulder at her journal.

Cathy was writing random notes and thoughts rather than working on any particular piece of work. She looked up as Catherine approached.

“Sorry, I’m gonna be doing this for a bit. Did you want to try writing something? I can rip you a piece of paper.”

Catherine shook her head and said, “No, it’s fine. I’ll just watch you, if that’s alright.” Cathy nodded and returned to her notes.

After maybe a minute of standing around, Catherine said, “Actually, I think I’ll take a look around a bit.” As much as she had hated hiking up here, now that they weren’t doing anything Catherine had the desire to move around.

Cathy didn’t respond and just hummed to indicate she had heard her. At that, Catherine decided to wander off the path a little bit. She was even beginning to appreciate the peaceful scenery, when she saw a flash of light out the corner of her eye.

The trees thinned into a clearing in front of a wall of rock. She approached the wall, which almost felt like it was beckoning her closer. What had previously been a completely blank stone wall now had a small symbol etched into the left side of it, the lines growing deeper as Catherine approached it.

“What?” she whispered, unsure of what she was seeing. She reached out and brushed her finger against the rune. Instantly, as if she had pressed a button, the rune fell into the wall, and a golden-yellow stone appeared.

Catherine pulled it out, turning it over in her hands. It felt as though it was humming in her hands, like it belonged there.

Then, she heard rustling and growling coming from behind her. She turned around to find herself face to face with two creatures made of rock and dirt forming right before her eyes. She backed up and hit the wall.

With nowhere to go, she shouted out, “Cathy? Anyone? Help!”

\---

Anne hadn’t expected Jane to tag along with her on their trip into the woods. Not that she was complaining, but it just seemed weird to her that they were being so friendly with each other. A day ago, they probably wouldn’t have even waved to each other in the hallways, and now Jane was following her into the forest, just because Anne had offered to show her around.

“How do you know your way around here anyway?” Jane had asked, when they had stepped off the designated trail into the actual wilderness.

“It’s a nice place to get some peace and quiet.”

“Didn’t realize you were the kind to like that sort of thing.”

“I don’t normally,” Anne had said, throwing a cheeky grin back at Jane, “but it means that I can be as loud as I want without anyone bothering me.”

It was easy being nice to Jane, or at least it was easier than being mean. Before everything had gone to shit, they had been friendly acquaintances, and even after Jane had never been outwardly cruel.

“We’re almost there,” she said, noticing that Jane was sounding a little tired from the physical exertion. They had been slowly but steadily climbing up a hill, so really it was understandable.

Finally, they reached a sort of lookout above the rest of the forest in front of them. The cliff in front of them wasn’t so tall as to be dangerous, but it created a beautiful sight.

“Worth it, right?” Anne said at the look of wonder on Jane’s face.

“This is gorgeous,” Jane responded, having no other words to describe the view. “I can’t believe you managed to find this on your own.”

“I know. I’m pretty amazing,” Anne said. They stood in silence, taking in the view.

Then, suddenly they heard some noise from below. Peering over the cliff, they caught sight of Catherine approaching the wall, not seeming to have noticed the two of them.

“Aragon,” Anne hissed. “What the hell is she doing out here?”

Jane gave her a look of worry. “I don’t think she’s noticed us yet. Maybe we should—”

“Ugh, of course she had to ruin this for me,” Anne muttered under her breath. She turned around to leave. “Whatever. Let’s just go.”

Jane turned to follow, when suddenly they heard Catherine shout for help.

Anne stopped and threw her head back in frustration. “What now?”

They looked back over the edge to see two monsters backing Catherine into the wall. Jane and Anne froze, unable to comprehend what they were seeing.

When Catherine tried to make a break for it, one of the monsters smashed its rocky fist into her, knocking her back into the wall.

As her body slammed into the wall and fell to the ground, Anne shouted out, “Catherine!”

She raced to the side, scrambling down a more slanted part of the rocky wall with Jane right behind her. When they reached the bottom, the monster who had attacked Aragon turned to face them with a snarl.

“Shit,” Anne cursed as she and Jane stood side by side, unsure of what to do next.

\---

Anna had to admit, she had made a mistake in not setting her alarm earlier. Usually she woke up at dawn, taking a morning run through the forest. Today, however, she had woken up only one hour before noon. She blamed her forgetfulness on the unplanned sleepover that had occurred between her and Kat the last night.

Whether it was morning or noon, though, Anna wasn’t about to give up so easily on her workout regimen. She quickly got dressed, with Kat following suit, and together they had made their way to the forest.

Kat had apologized endlessly and had also complained that they were still going to run in the middle-of-the-day heat. Despite Anna repeatedly telling her that she didn’t have to come, Kat stuck by her side.

Which was how they ended up on a run in the middle of the day in prime position to hear Catherine’s shout, followed quickly by Anne’s.

Anna and Kat shared a look, both easily recognizing the voices, before veering off the path towards the direction of the sounds.

They reached the clearing to see Catherine on the ground with a rocky monster moving towards her and Anne and Jane with a similar monster moving towards them.

“Huh,” Anna said. This wasn’t exactly the scene she had been expecting to find, but there was no time to waste. Thinking quickly, she picked up a rock and threw it at the monster that had almost reached Catherine. “Hey! Over here!”

The monster turned around and snarled at them. Kat smacked Anna’s arm. “Seriously? You just threw a rock at a rock monster. That was your best idea?”

“Well if you have a better idea, then I’m all ears,” Anna growled out, continuing to pick up rocks and pelt them at the creature.

At that moment, a disheveled looking Cathy Parr appeared.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Katherine said, because whatever was happening just _had_ to involve all six of them.

With Cathy’s presence, the monsters suddenly seemed to grow agitated, the stone wall behind Catherine glowing brighter than ever. They shook their heads, seeming incredibly disoriented, before their bodies fell apart, back into mounds of dirt and rock.

Cathy rushed over to help Catherine up, who seemed to be fine despite having been thrown against a wall.

“Are you alright?” Cathy asked, checking her over for injuries.

“I-I’m fine. Just incredibly sore. And confused,” she groaned, looking around at the group. “Did what just happened actually … happen?”

They all exchanged glances. Obviously, they had all seen the same thing, but nobody wanted to be the one to say it out loud.

“That wall … It didn’t look like that before, did it?” Anna asked, pointing at the wall. Six runes were displayed in a row, etched into what had previously been completely flat stone.

Catherine stumbled towards the leftmost rune and brushed her finger across it while holding up the stone she had found. “When I first came across the wall, there was only this marking, and when I touched it, this rock came out.”

Anna walked towards the center of the wall and reached out for one of the runes. It fell in, and a red stone appeared, just like how the yellow one had come out. She grabbed it and turned it over in her hand.

“It feels like it belongs to me,” Anna said, looking up to meet Catherine’s eyes.

“Me next!” Anne shouted, running up to the wall, touching the right-most marking, but nothing happened. She frowned, running her fingers along the runes as she walked down the wall. She stepped around Anna and slowed down the closer that she approached Catherine. Her eyes briefly met Catherine’s before returning back to the markings.

The moment her fingers reached the last rune next to Catherine’s, a green stone emerged.

“I’m sort of sensing a pattern,” Cathy said ruefully. She approached the right-most rune and placed her hand on it, pulling out a blue stone as it appeared.

Jane and Katherine looked at each other, understanding what Cathy meant, and moved to their respective places between the other four girls. Jane took the black stone from her place, and Katherine collected her pink stone.

As the last stone was pulled from the wall, the wall stopped glowing. A line down the center of the wall appeared, and the wall was transformed into a door. Anne reached out, ready to push in the door when Catherine interrupted her.

“Nope, I’m not doing this,” she said, shaking her head and backing up.

“Catherine—” Cathy tried to say, but Catherine cut her off.

“No, don’t even start. I just got smacked into a wall by a monster, and then of course all four of them show up, and now there’s a magical door, and—” Catherine closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Whatever this is, I don’t need it in my life.” She gave a brief glance to Anne before she tossed her stone to the ground and walked off, not waiting for a response.

Cathy gave an apologetic smile before running off to catch up to her.

The other four looked around at each other.

“She has a point,” Kat said. “About the monsters and all, I mean. I don’t think we could’ve faced them. We’re lucky that they disintegrated before they could kill us.”

“I don’t think it was luck. It happened right after Catherine Parr showed up. I think somehow we did it, or the wall did,” Anna said. She pointed to the wall. “Look, now that those two are gone, their symbols are gone as well.”

Indeed, the symbols on the left and right side of the wall had vanished, as had the line down the center. The door was once again just a wall.

“But the monsters haven’t reformed,” Jane said, looking at the mounds where the creatures had collapsed.

Anne placed her hand back on the wall. “It feels different now, though. Like it was waiting for us. I think when we all showed up, it changed it permanently.”

“Okay, but we still have no idea what this all is. The monsters, the wall, the stones,” Kat said, hugging her arms to her chest. “I agree with Catherine. Aragon,” she added, to clarify. “I think we should leave this all alone.”

Jane nodded and said, “I agree. This is much too dangerous for us to be messing around with.”

“What?” Anne pouted her lips. “But this feels _right_. Don’t tell me you don’t feel it.”

“Even if it feels right, we can’t do anything without the other two Catherines,” Anna reasoned. “The door is gone.”

“Ugh fine,” Anne said, crossing her arms. Then after a pause, she said, “If I can convince Aragon and Parr to come back, would the rest of you come back as well?”

Anna and Jane looked towards Kat while Kat looked between the two. She raised her hands, as if to ask why they were looking to her.

“I would,” Anna finally said.

Katherine sighed and said, “Yeah, I guess I would too.”

They all turned to look at Jane, who sighed and said, “Well, I don’t like it very much, but I suppose I would return if everyone else was going to, if only to make sure the rest of you didn’t get into trouble.”

“Yes!” Anne said, pumping her fist. “This is gonna be awesome!”

“Okay, but convincing Aragon is still a pretty big if,” Anna said.

“Don’t worry,” Anne said as she wiggled her eyebrows. “I have my ways.”

Anne picked up the red stone from the ground where Catherine had thrown it, and they all went off in their separate ways. Behind them, the markings in the wall faded until it was once again flat wall of stone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is this even how the power rangers work? I'm using artistic license okay. 
> 
> Also, it was a real struggle trying to get all of them into the forest. You might not believe it, but there are not that many good reasons for people to go into the woods on a random Saturday. In fact, there are fewer than six reasons. Thus, I lumped them into groups of two so that I only had to come up with three reasons. Very clever, I know.


	3. welcome to the show

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I love seeing Anne and Anna text each other bc it's just **Ann** on the start of every single line

**Anne Boleyn:** hey anna can you help me convince aragon to go back to the wall

_If you reply, Anne Boleyn will be able to see your Active Status and when you’ve read messages. _

**Anna von Cleves**: I thought you said you had your ways

**Anne Boleyn**: i may have lied about that

**Anne Boleyn**: i was just gonna try talking to her but she hasnt responded to my messages

**Anne Boleyn**: im pretty sure shes blocked me

**Anna von Cleves**: Are you surprised about that?

**Anna von Cleves**: Literally anyone in the school could have predicted that

**Anne Boleyn**: whatever will you help me or not

**Anna von Cleves**: Why are you asking me?

**Anne Boleyn**: who else am i gonna ask

**Anne Boleyn**: jane and kat are both probably hoping i fail and parr would never go against aragon

**Anne Boleyn**: please im begging you

**Anna von Cleves**: Yeah fine I’ve been curious anyway

**Anne Boleyn**: YEET

**Anne Boleyn**: thank u so much i owe you my life

**Anna von Cleves**: I woke up Sunday and had super strength? 

**Anne Boleyn**: oh yo same :oo

**Anna von Cleves**: I ran like 25 miles in an hour and I didn’t even break a sweat

**Anne Boleyn**: wait u wot

**Anne Boleyn**: dude i was just excited because i jumped really high…

**Anne Boleyn**: i almost jumped to the top of a tree

**Anna von Cleves**: I mean that’s impressive too

**Anne Boleyn**: yeah but like

**Anne Boleyn**: what the fuck

**Anne Boleyn**: 25 fucking miles

\---

Anna had been surprised when she woke up to a text from Anne. She certainly wasn’t surprised that Anne was struggling with trying to convince Catherine, but she hadn’t exactly expected Anne to ask _her_ for help.

It wasn’t that they disliked each other or anything. It was just that neither had ever known each other. Anna had transferred schools only a year back, and so she didn’t have the kind of history the others had with each other.

These were the thoughts on her mind as she picked Kat up on the way to school.

“Morning,” Kat said with a smile, though it was clear that something was on her mind as well if her pinched eyebrows were any indication.

“Hey Kat. How’re you doing?”

“I’m … okay,” she said, pausing for a bit to think about what to say. “Just feeling kinda weird. I accidentally broke, like, two cups and a plate yesterday, just because I gripped them too strong? I’m pretty sure my dad thinks I have, like anger issues now, but I swear I wasn’t trying to break them or anything. It just, like, happened.”

Anna nodded, already knowing where this was going. “Yeah, actually I was gonna ask you about the same thing. I think whatever happened on Saturday made us super strong or something. I didn’t break anything, but I ran like 25 miles in an hour yesterday.”

“What?? Okay hold up, you can’t just casually compare those two things. I broke, like, fake glass, and you basically ran as fast as, like, the speed limit in a neighborhood. For an entire _hour_” Kat said, staring at Anna through wide eyes. “Like I did something that any strong person could have done, and then you did something that, like, _no_ _human_ could have done.”

“Well maybe if you tried, you could do it too.”

“I’d really rather not. Like I can’t believe you even subjected yourself to that in order to find out you had that ability.”

Anna laughed and said, “Maybe you’ll find running more bearable now that we apparently have super strength. I’ll even go easy on you and stick with 15 miles in an hour.”

“Ugh, yeah I’ll pass,” Kat said, scrunching her nose. “Anyway, do you really think this is related to the stones we found? Like that can’t be real. That’s something you read out of a comic book.”

“I don’t know, I can’t think of any other explanation. I know that of the other four, at least Anne has had similar experiences. She said something about being able to jump really high.”

“You’ve been talking with Anne?” Kat said. Anna glanced over to see Kat’s brows furrowed.

“Uh, not really. She just texted me this morning. Does that bother you?”

“No, no, no, it’s fine,” Kat quickly said, looking back at road. “I just wasn’t expecting it is all. I mean, did she just want to text you about suddenly have super strength?”

“No, she was actually asking for my help to convince Catherine de Aragon to go back to the forest.”

“Oh. Cool,” Kat said, slowly nodding her head.

Anna snuck another look at Kat, who didn’t seem to be having any particularly strong emotional reactions. Instead, Kat just look thoughtful.

“I said that I’d help her. Does _that_ bother you? Cause, I know that you didn’t want to go back to the forest—”

At this, Kat rolled her eyes and cut Anna off, “Oh my God. No, it’s fine, Anna. You’re allowed to do whatever you want without getting my permission.”

“Well I know that,” Anna said with a frown. “I just don’t wanna do something that would make you feel upset is all.”

Kat turned to Anna and gave a small smile. “I know, but if it really bothered me that much, I would tell you.”

“Okay. But it does bother you a little?” Anna said, stating more than asking.

Kat took a moment to think, sighing through her nose.

“It doesn’t bother me that you’re gonna talk to Catherine. I mean, like, I’m not thrilled about the idea of going back to the forest, but like, it’s whatever. And I’m not upset that Anne texted you for help, cause it makes sense. Like, yeah Jane and I didn’t want to go back and trying to talk to Catherine Parr would just be … kinda stupid.”

“It’s just … Anne hasn’t spoken to me at all. Like she didn’t even say anything to me when we all saw each other in the woods, and … I don’t know. I just thought that maybe after everything she would have at the very least, like, texted me or something.”

“Have you considered talking to her first?” Anna suggested, but Kat shook her head.

“Yeah, but like, what would I even say? ‘Thanks for beating some guys up for me even though I’ve been avoiding you for all these years?’”

“Okay, well maybe don’t start off with that,” Anna said. Eventually they pulled into the school parking lot, and Anna looked at Kat as she shut off the engine. “Look, I bet Anne’s just as worried about what to say to you, and that’s what’s holding her back.”

Kat crossed her arms and pouted her lips. “Well, she should still be the one to text me first. She’s the older one. Isn’t that her responsibility?”

They got out of the car and started heading towards the front of the school as Anna said, “Good luck with that. Responsible is not the word I would use to describe Anne.”

Kat snorted at that, giving a small “Hmph” in response.

Anna then had a thought, “Hey, if I manage to convince Catherine, Anne’ll kind of be forced to talk, since we’ll be forced to go exploring together.”

“Yeah right. More like we could continue awkwardly avoiding each other, except then it’d be right in front of other people.”

“Well then maybe you can bond with Catherine over your mutual avoidance of Anne,” Anna said with a large grin.

“I’m not avoiding Anne,” Kat said defensively, causing Anna to snort quite loudly. Kat shoved Anna’s shoulder, causing her to stumble away a bit. “I’m not! It’s her who’s avoiding me.”

“So then you won’t have any problem talking to her when we all end up back in the woods?” Anna said, raising her eyebrow.

“That’s assuming you can even convince Catherine to go back.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I definitely will. At this point, I’m really only doing it to force you and Anne to interact again,” Anna said with a cheeky grin.

“Ugh, why do I even talk to you about these things when you just torture me about them?” Kat groaned.

“Cause you love me,” Anna said, her grin turning smug.

“And I question why every single day,” Kat said as she shook her head and gave an exaggerated sigh. They shared a look, and Kat broke out into a grin, linking her arm with Anna’s as they walked through the entrance of the school.

\---

At the start of lunch, Anna set off to look for Catherine and convince her to go back to the woods with the rest of them. She hadn’t known where to find her, but thankfully Anne had texted her Catherine’s location in anticipation of this.

Soon, she found the classroom Anne had pointed out, and indeed Catherine and Cathy were sitting inside. They didn’t notice Anna until she approached them and cleared her throat loudly.

“Catherine? Can I speak to you?” Anna looked towards Aragon specifically, though she glanced at Parr briefly.

Catherine’s brows furrowed as she realized who was speaking to them. “About what exactly?”

“I think you know what,” Anna said, placing a hand on her hip.

“Whatever you have to say, I don’t want to hear it. I made my decision on Saturday,” Catherine said, turning her back to Anna and facing Cathy once again.

“C’mon Catherine, you know as well as I do that you can’t just say no that easily.”

“Watch me,” Catherine said, not even turning to look at Anna.

Anna huffed and slid into the desk next to both of them. She spoke softly, wary to let any others hear the conversation, “Look, this is serious okay? There were literal monsters in that forest.”

“Yes, I’m aware,” Catherine hissed back. “In case you don’t remember, one of them threw me against the wall.”

Anna actually didn’t remember this part, having arrived at the whole situation after that had taken place, but she went along with it. “Exactly, they’re dangerous. They could hurt people. We can’t just let them run around, attacking innocent people.”

“And why is this our responsibility? We’re just a bunch of random teenagers,” Catherine said, her voice getting louder out of frustration. The teacher in the room to give them a brief glance of concern.

“Because whatever these stones are, they’ve made us strong enough to deal with them,” Anna said, her voice low. “Getting attacked by that monster could have been deadly, but the stone protected you, didn’t it? And I know that the others have been feeling stronger lately. Whatever is going on, we’ve been given these powers for a reason.”

“You don’t know that,” Catherine said, though her face showed uncertainty. Her brows were drawn tight and her mouth in a small frown. “Maybe there is no reason for the stones. Maybe the whole monster thing was a one-time occurrence. I mean, it’s not like anyone else has had a monster encounter.”

“Not yet, but it could happen if we don’t do anything,” Anna said. “C’mon Catherine, you know going back is the right thing to do. If it’s really nothing, we can all part ways and never speak to each other again. But if it is something, we can’t just ignore it. Unless you’re willing to risk people getting hurt by those things.”

Catherine looked at Cathy who simply shrugged and said, “She does have a point. And I for one would like to know what’s happening, even if the town isn’t in danger.”

Catherine had a pained look on her face as she looked between the two. “Can’t we just—I don’t know—alert the authorities or something?”

“You seriously think that anyone is going to believe us about this?” Anna asked, finding the notion ridiculous. “And even if they did, they wouldn’t have the super strength that we have.”

Catherine closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, taking a large sigh.

“Fine. I’ll go back to the wall, or door, or—whatever it is we found,” she said, opening her eyes to look at Anna.

Anna gave a wide smile in relief as she leaned back in her seat. “Thank you, Catherine. Seriously. You won’t regret it.”

Catherine scoffed. “I probably will, but … you’re right. I get the feeling that wasn’t the last time we’ll see those things.” Her mouth contorted into a grimace. “So are we going to go back today after school?”

“Maybe. I still need to check with the others, but I would plan on it. I’ll let you know once I find out,” Anna said. She stood up from the desk. “I’ll see you later then, Catherine and … Catherine.”

“Call me, Cathy,” Parr said, with small smile. “Since we’ll be seeing each other around.”

Anna nodded and smiled back, looking between the two before heading outside of the classroom. She had one more destination for this lunch period.

She walked outside and moved towards the back of the school where the extra school parking lot was. She could see Anne’s small figure sitting against the fence around the lot, faced away from the school.

“Hey Anne,” she said, causing the other girl to turn around with a cough, smoke coming out of her mouth. Now that she was closer, Anna could see a halfway burnt cigarette in Anne’s hand.

“Anna! I wasn’t expecting to see you,” Anne said, twisting her body around to face Anna.

“Didn’t realize you smoked,” Anna said, staring at the cigarette. Anne dropped the arm that held the offending item, as if doing so would change the fact that she had indeed been smoking.

“I don’t. Usually,” Anne quickly added, seeing Anna raise an eyebrow. “Y’know, on account of the whole ‘they kill you’ sort of thing.”

“Right,” Anna said, clearly skeptical, and Anne smushed the thing against the ground. She rubbed her hands against her legs and stood up.

“So, did you want something?” she asked, her eyes wide as she looked at Anna expectantly.

“Yeah, actually. I came to give some good news. I convinced Catherine to come back to the woods.”

“Wait, seriously?” Anne said, jumping a little in excitement with a wide grin on her face. “Oh my god, you’re a miracle worker. How did you manage it?”

“Honestly, it wasn’t that hard. I just told her that it was the right thing to do, and then she was on board.”

“Damn, you’re like an Aragon-whisperer…” Anne said, her face incredulous. “Have I ever told you how amazing you are?”

Anna laughed. “Well seeing as how we’ve never spoken before today, no. But I appreciate the sentiment. Anyway, I was thinking we could go back to the forest later tonight. You in?”

“Yes! Of course, today would be—I would literally go back whenever. Like, pick a time, and I’ll be there,” Anne said, nodding her head furiously and gesturing wildly with her hands.

Anna shook her head at Anne’s enthusiasm, but there was a smile on her face as well. “Alright then. We just need to check with Kat and Jane, and then we’ll all be set.”

“I’ll ask Jane if you ask Kat?” Anne suggested, and Anna nodded in agreement.

Anna hesitated before asking, “Actually, I was wondering. Have you been avoiding Kat?” She knew this was probably the best time to ask, if there was any.

Anne’s eyes widened a little bit, and she said slowly, “And why would I be avoiding her?”

“Because of your complicated family history?” Anna said. “I know that you’re cousins.”

“She told you,” Anne said, slightly surprised.

“Yeah, well even if she hadn’t, you weren’t exactly subtle about knowing her. I mean, getting into a fight for her kind of tipped the whole school off that there was _something_ between you two,” Anna pointed out.

“I know, I probably shouldn’t have punched them. I just—if you’d heard the things they were saying,” Anne said, practically growling at the end of the sentence.

“No, I’m glad you did. Glad that there’s someone else who’s looking out for her,”

“Yeah, cause I’ve been doing such a bang-up job of that,” Anne said, looking away.

“Which brings me back to my initial question. Are you avoiding her?”

Anne went silent for a moment, and then she sighed still looking away towards the street. “Yeah, I have a little. I don’t know how much she’s told you of our family, but they all hate me. Like really,_ really_ hate me. I can only imagine what my uncle’s said about me …”

“You know that Kat doesn’t hate you, right?” Anna said, her voice softer. 

Anne cracked a small smile at that and finally turned to look at Anna. “Yeah, I know. Still, I figured it’d be easier for her. My uncle would probably give her shit about it if he found out.”

“And how would he find out?” Anna said, creasing her eyebrows.

“You know how rumors spiral around this town,” Anne said, rolling her eyes.

“Yeah. You’re right, I do,” Anna said with a sigh. “Still, I think you should really talk to her. She misses you.”

“Well if this thing works out, I guess I’ll kind of be forced to talk to her, won’t I?” Anne said, causing Anna to let out a breathy laugh.

“You don’t have to wait until then to talk to her. You could come sit with us for the rest of lunch. Actually eat something,” she said, noting how Anne didn’t seem to have an actual lunch to eat. “I’m sure Kat would share hers with you, as would I.”

Anne bit her lip for a brief moment before letting out a smile. “Maybe next time, yeah?”

Anna looked into Anne’s eyes for a moment and then nodded. “Okay. Next time. I’ll see you around?”

“See you around,” Anne repeated. Her smile grew wider as she said, “Maybe I’ll even see you later tonight.”

“Right. Text me later about what Jane says,” Anna said, already backing away.

Anne nodded and gave her some finger-guns. “You got it.”

Anna waved a final farewell before turning around and walking away. Before she entered the school, she looked behind her to see Anne once again sitting against the chain-link fence. Her gaze lingered before she turned and walked back into the school.

\---

**Anne Boleyn:** jane said yes!

**Anne Boleyn:** what about kat??

**Anna von Cleves**: She also said yes!

**Anna von Cleves**: I already updated Catherine and Cathy, so we’re good to meet in the woods after practice

**Anne Boleyn:** catherine and cathy? whos who?

**Anna von Cleves**: Catherine de Aragon and Cathy Parr

**Anna von Cleves**: Cathy told me to call her that when I was talking with Catherine

**Anne Boleyn:** wow i cant believe youre already on a nickname basis with parr

**Anne Boleyn:** maybe instead of being an aragon whisperer youre just a catherine whisperer in general

**Anna von Cleves**: I think that’s just called being a likeable person lol 

**Anne Boleyn:** cathy has never asked me to call her that

**Anne Boleyn:** are you insinuating that im not likeable

**Anna von Cleves**: :)

**Anne Boleyn:** wow i take back what i said about you being amazing

**Anne Boleyn:** youre actually terrible

**Anna von Cleves**: Oh good you’re finally realizing

**Anna von Cleves**: You could bond with Kat over how terrible I am if you, you know, actually talked with her

**Anne Boleyn:** Read 12:48

**Anna von Cleves**: ???

**Anna von Cleves**: The app already shows whether or not you’ve read my messages why would you send that

**Anne Boleyn:** Read 12:49

**Anna von Cleves**: …

**Anne Boleyn:** jkjk

**Anne Boleyn:** ill talk to kat i promise

**Anna von Cleves**: Thank you

**Anna von Cleves**: That would make Kat really happy

**Anne Boleyn:** im the one who should be thanking you for looking out for her

**Anna von Cleves**: It’s more that we look out for each other

**Anne Boleyn:** well im glad for that

**Anne Boleyn:** ill see you tonight

**Anne Boleyn:** (and btw you really are awesome)

**Anna von Cleves**: See you!

**Anna von Cleves**: (And you’re not so bad yourself)

\---

“God, I still can’t believe you managed to convince Catherine,” Kat laughed in the passenger seat as Anna drove them towards the direction of the woods.

“I’m just as surprised as you, honestly. I expected her to argue more about Anne being there, but she didn’t even bring her up,” Anna said.

“So what, you just, like, told her that it was our duty to look into the monster situation, and she said yes?” Kat asked, and Anna nodded in confirmation. “Huh. I guess she has a bigger heart than I expected.”

Anna snorted at that. “What, did you expect her to not have a heart?”

“No! I just thought—” Kat protested, struggling to find the words. “I don’t know. She seemed so committed to her grudge against Anne, I thought you would’ve had to spend more time convincing her about _that_, not whether or not going back was, like, a moral obligation or something.”

“Yeah, well today I learned that I really don’t know anything about any of these people I’ve heard so much about,” Anna said, a wry smile stretched across her face.

“Yeah,” Kat said, looking off in thought. “Weird how it’s the six of us that got put into this situation, huh?”

Anna hummed her agreement. “Maybe there’s something about getting screwed over by Henry that makes you qualified to be superheroes.”

Kat smiled and turned to Anna. “I’d believe it. The amount of bullshit we went through is probably enough to prepare us for anything.”

There was a brief pause, and then Kat asked, “You really think we’re gonna be superheroes?”

“Honestly, I feel like that’s the least weird explanation for all of this,” Anna said. She looked over at Kat, who seemed to be lost in thought, a smile on her face.

Finally, they reached the end of the road where the trail to the forest began. Anna parked on the side of the road, and they started the walk into the woods. As they entered the forest further, Kat started to wrap her arms around her body.

“You good?” Anna asked, noticing it immediately and remembering Kat’s original reluctance to come back.

Kat nodded, looking over at Anna. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Just, uh, a little nervous, but I’m good.” She gave Anna a smile to reassure her, which Anna returned.

Soon they could see the clearing where the other four girls were already waiting, their four symbols in the wall glowing. As Anna and Kat approached, their respective runes started to glow as well, brightening the closer they got. The four girls noticed this and turned to look at the two of them.

Catherine and Anne were on opposite sides of the clearing, with Cathy and Jane standing in the middle, next to each of them respectively. Catherine was looking clearly unhappy as she held her red stone in her hand, and Anne seemed to be in a similarly bad mood until she saw Anna and Kat, her face instantly brightening.

Anna raised her hand in a sort of small wave.

“Hope you haven’t been waiting too long,” she said, looking over the group as everyone smiled politely in response, except for Catherine who only seemed to change her frown into a grimace.

“Let’s just get it over with, okay?” Catherine said, tapping her foot impatiently.

“Right,” Anna said, her face taking on a more serious look. She looked at the wall, as did the rest of the group. All of the runes were glowing, but the door that had appeared on Saturday wasn’t showing. “Let’s all get into our positions from Saturday.”

The other girls all nodded and moved towards their rune. Catherine and Anne shared a hostile look as they stood next to each other before focusing their attention on the runes. Once everyone was in place, the wall indeed split down the middle and changed into a door.

Anna and Jane shared a look, as they were the two in the center of the formation. They placed their hands on their sides of the door and pushed it open.

Beyond it was what appeared to be a cave, the darkness concealing what was beyond the depths. The six looked at each other, everyone equally nervous about stepping forward. As Anna looked around, she eventually locked eyes with Anne, who shrugged and took the first step forward.

Anna followed, barely a step behind Anne, and soon everybody else was stepping into the darkness. The further they went down, the more the cave seemed to glow on its own, the walls giving off their own golden light.

Once they had all walked in, the door behind them closed and turned back into a wall of stone.

“This is incredible,” Cathy whispered, spinning around to look at the walls around her. “What is this place?”

No one responded, but it was clear everyone was in awe of where they were. Even Catherine’s face had softened with wonder.

Finally, they reached a place where the cave opened up into one large, circular room. In the center was a stone table with six holes in it.

“I guess we’re supposed to put our stones in here,” Anna said, pulling her stone out of her pocket. It glowed a dim red light, and everyone else pulled out their stones as well, all six glowing. They all approached the table and slid their stones in.

Instantly, the room around them started to shift with four more doors appearing on the walls around them. The golden glow of the walls grew brighter, and the doors opened.

Four girls, who appeared to be just as old as the six of them, walked through the doors. They looked at each other before looking at the six bewildered girls at the center of the room.

“Hello,” one of them spoke up. “I’m sure you must all be very confused, and if we’re being honest, so are we. We didn’t expect to be called upon again. We thought that the Power Coins would never be needed again.”

She had a small smile on her face, though it looked more apologetic than anything else. The other three’s faces ranged from grimaces to frowns, and it was clear that none of them were happy about the circumstances.

Another one spoke up. “If you’re all here it means that there is a great darkness coming, and you six are the only ones who can stop it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can I just say I really love Anna. What a good bean. She deserved a chapter that focused on her. The only downside was uhh big rip to Jane and Parr. Anna had very little reason to interact with them.
> 
> Also rip that this took so long. It is a longer chapter to make up for that. I can't believe I'm 3 chapters in, and they haven't even been told what a Power Ranger is. I am very impatient for the plot to happen and for them to be friends. I know I'm the writer, and I control the flow of this, but damn when can I actually write the Team as Family tag lol


	4. no matter how we feel, it's what we have to do

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello I'm back. School is really trying its hardest to kill me, but I am persevering!
> 
> Have some actual Power Rangers plot. I know, I never thought we'd make it here either, so hopefully this makes the fic more interesting.

“I’m sorry, who exactly are you four?” Jane said, being the first one to break out of the shock that had fallen over the room.

She was then immediately followed by Parr asking, “And where did you come from? Were you in here the entire time?”

“Am I the only one who heard about the impending darkness they mentioned?” Catherine interrupted before the four strangers could answer the previous questions. “I feel like that takes precedence right now.”

The four strangers looked at each other, and the one who seemed to be the leader of the group sighed and stepped forward.

“Right, we understand you must have many questions. We’ll answer everything, but first we should start with introductions. I’m Maria, and these are Maggie, Joan, and Bessie,” she said, pointing at each woman as she said their names. “We four are the Ladies in Waiting, and yes we have been here in the Fortress of the Tower for a very long time.”

“Ladies in Waiting? Fortress of the Tower?” Anna repeated.

“Right, I guess I should start from the very beginning,” Maria muttered to herself in thought. She looked up to the six and took a deep breath. “A long time ago, there used to be demons that roamed free across the land. They were called the Felgarde, and they terrorized humanity and nearly pushed humans to the brink of extinction until a group of six demons rebelled. They called themselves the Renegade Power Rangers. This was their base, which they called the Fortress of the Tower, and we four were … friends of theirs,” Maria said wistfully.

Maggie moved towards the table and pointed towards the coins that rested in their slots. “They created these Power Coins to give the humans the same powers that they had. With their magic, they also bound our energies to this tower so that we could continue to lead the future generations of Power Rangers. Thus, the name Ladies in Waiting”

“So what, this is all magic then? The Coins, the Tower, you four?” Cathy said, her eyebrows creased.

“In a sense. I mean, it was just reality back then, not magic, but I suppose the times have changed,” Joan said.

“So, if I can get this straight,” Anna said, “these coins were made by demons to help humans fight demons? And we were basically chosen as the next group of demon hunters.”

“Yeah, that about sums it up,” Bessie said with a nod.

“Wait, but why do you call this place the Fortress of the Tower if it’s literally underground and in a cave?” Anne asked, holding her arms up to gestures to their surroundings.

“Well, it did use to be a tower, but it was destroyed until all that was left were the underground rooms,” Joan said, looking a little sad. “Like I said, the times have changed a lot.”

“Please, can we just focus on what’s _going_ to happen instead of what _has_ happened?” Catherine interrupted, waving her arms wildly. “What exactly is this evil that we’re dealing with?”

“Well, we wish we could tell you, but we honestly don’t have a clue,” Bessie said, and all four of the Ladies in Waiting looked a little disturbed.

“Aren’t you supposed to be the guides? I thought that was your purpose,” Catherine near shouted.

“Yes, but we really didn’t expect to be called upon again,” Maggie said. “I mean, the Felgarde were sealed away permanently a long time ago.”

“Unless they weren’t,” Maria said with a grimace. “It’s possible that they’ve found a way to break the seal.”

Cathy spoke up in an attempt to help with the confusion, “We did see some monsters made of rock before we got the coins. They were right outside of the entrance to the cave, but they fell apart once we had all shown up.”

“Those aren’t the Felgarde, but they are a sign of dark magic,” Joan said slowly as she voiced her thoughts. “The Tower doesn’t have enough power to destroy Felgarde, but it does have a ward that prevents dark magic from being used within a certain radius. When you all approached the Coins, it must have activated the Tower.”

“So then the Felgarde really are back,” Maggie said, her eyes wide in horror.

Maria sighed and said softly, “Yeah. It looks like it.”

There was a moment of silence as the four Ladies in Waiting looked at each other, their faces filled with shock and grief.

Kat finally broke the silence when she quietly asked, “So, how are we supposed to stop them?”

There was another pause, as none of the Ladies in Waiting seemed to want to speak. Finally, Maria sighed and turned to face the six. “They were rock monsters, just by themselves? Nobody else nearby?”

The six Rangers looked at each other and all shook their heads.

“That sounds like the work of Eldon,” Joan said, catching onto what Maria was thinking. She also turned to the six to explain, “He was the leader of the Felgarde and the most powerful. He had the ability to create smaller creatures out of anything in nature. If anyone could have broken the seal, it would have been him.”

“If it’s really him, you’ll have to find him and kill him,” Bessie said, a dark look on her face. “He can’t be allowed to run around,”

“We have to kill him,” Anna echoed as she and the other six Rangers looked around at each other in worry.

Maria sighed. “Yes, unfortunately. It’s up to you six. We’re sorry that it had to come to this.”

“This can’t be happening,” Catherine muttered under her breath.

“If you’re going to face Eldon and his monsters, you’re going to have to know how to actually fight,” Maggie said. “We’ll help train you and your abilities here in the Tower.”

“Hold up, don’t we have a choice?” Catherine asked, sounding desperate. “I didn’t ask for any of this, okay? I was just wandering around the forest. This is all just an accident!”

“The Power Coins don’t make mistakes,” Joan said with a sympathetic frown. “You—all of you—were drawn to this place for a reason, whether you realize it or not. It has to be you.”

Silence fell upon the group again as each of the six teens realized the weight of what was happening.

“If we have to, then we have to,” Anna said, and all eyes turned on her. “C’mon you guys, the fate of the city is in our hands.”

“The fate of the world, actually,” Bessie interjected. When the six Rangers looked at her, she continued, “If you fail to stop Eldon here, he’ll continue to reign havoc on the rest of the world. So.”

“Right,” Anna said with a sigh, and she turned back to the other five girls. “The fate of the _world_ is in our hands, and we have the power to do something. We _have_ to do something.”

Jane nodded as she thought about Edward and her mother. “I agree. We can’t turn our backs on this. Our friends and family are relying on us.”

“Plus, you gotta admit that despite how dangerous it sounds, it also sounds really cool,” Cathy said. “I mean, we just learned that magic is real, and you want to turn your back on it?”

Everyone was looking to Catherine, who just looked back at all of them with a grimace.

“Yeah, I get it. It’s the right thing to do. I just … wish things were different,” she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Anna turned to look at Anne and Kat and tilted her head. “And what about you two? You haven’t exactly said much.”

Anne gave a lopsided grin and said, “I mean, I was in no matter what. Having super strength and beating up monsters sounds _so_ sick.”

Anne looked to Kat, who gave a small laugh at Anne’s response. Kat looked a little scared, but she stood a little taller with Anne smiling at her.

“Yeah, who knows. Maybe this’ll be fun,” she said, smiling back at Anne.

“This is the potential end of the world. How could this possibly be fun?” Catherine said, glaring at Anne.

“Just cause you have a stick up your ass doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t enjoy being superheroes,” Anne snarked back.

Before Catherine could answer, Maria stepped forward and said, “So does that mean everyone has agreed? You’ll help stop Eldon?”

When no one answered, Anna said, “I think that silence is as close as you’ll get to a resounding yes.”

Joan smiled and said, “Wonderful! Now then, I know we’ve already thrown a lot of information at you, but it’s time for the real orientation. Let me show you around!”

\---

And with that final tour of the Tower, they had officially begun their journey as Power Rangers. The Ladies in Waiting had allowed them a night to process everything but insisted that they start training immediately the next day.

As the six left the Tower and stepped back outside into the forest, it finally started to sink in that everything that had just happened had actually happened.

“This is real. Like actually real,” Catherine whispered, the moonlight barely illuminating her shocked face.

“It’s incredible,” Cathy said. “I mean, can you believe magic has been real all this time? I’ll need to ask Joan about it more tomorrow …”

“Uh, yeah and we’re _superheroes_. I mean, come on, that’s gotta be the coolest thing you’ve ever heard,” Anne said, her voice noticeably louder than the others had been.

Catherine looked displeased, clearly having had much more negative thoughts behind her comment.

“It’s also the scariest thing I’ve ever heard,” Jane countered Anne. “I mean, we have the entire city depending on us. The people we love are in danger, and they don’t even realize it.”

Jane gave Catherine a small, understanding smile, which Catherine felt grateful for. At least she wasn’t the only here who was concerned.

“Which is why we’ve got to take this seriously. We’re all in this together now. No backing out,” Anna said, and she looked around at the group, her eyes falling on Catherine.

Catherine gave an offended look and said, “Obviously not. There’s no way I’m going to let demons run rampant in this town. I just … it’s a lot, okay?”

Jane sighed. “Yes, it is a lot. Why don’t we all go home and just think on it? I’m sure all of us could use some time to process.”

Everyone nodded or mumbled an agreement, and so they all walked back to where they had parked their cars. Catherine and Cathy led the pack with Anna and Kat right behind them. When Anne lagged behind a bit, Jane took note and fell back to walk beside her.

“Hey, did you need a ride back home?” she asked, not expecting the confused look that Anne gave her.

“Why do you keep offering me rides to places?” Anne asked. Besides the ride after their Saturday detention, Jane had also been the one to drive Anne to the forest earlier that day, and Anne genuinely didn’t understand why Jane was being so kind towards her.

Though Anne hadn’t meant the question maliciously, Jane felt a little hurt, a frown quickly forming on her face. “I was just trying to be polite, but if you don’t want a ride, you can just say no.”

“It’s not that,” Anne quickly protested, “it’s just …”

Anne looked off to the forest as she bit her lip, debating what to say. Silence followed for a few moments, and Jane was about to ask what the problem was when Anne turned back to face her and said, “You know what? Never mind. Yes, a ride would be really nice.”

“Are you sure?” Jane asked, her eyebrows drawn together in doubt. Now it was her turn to be confused at the sudden change in Anne’s demeanor.

“Yeah. I really would like it,” Anne said, and she smiled at Jane until Jane returned it.

“If you’re sure,” she said, seemingly satisfied with Anne’s response, though she still felt a little perturbed by Anne’s question.

Once the group reached the streets, they all split up to head towards where each had parked their cars. As they broke apart, Anna gave a look to Anne, her eyebrow raised. Half-expecting this the entire night, Anne sighed and rolled her eyes.

She turned to Jane, and said, “Hey Jane, can you just gimme a moment? There’s something I gotta do real quick. I’ll meet you back at your car?”

Jane tilted her head a little, her face betraying her confusion, but she smiled anyway and said, “Of course.”

Anne turned and took a deep breath before walking towards where Anna and Kat had started getting into their car.

“Hey! Kat!” she called out, causing Kat to stop in front of the already open passenger side door.

Kat looked over at Anne in surprise. “Oh! Uh, hi Anne. What’s up?”

“Nothing much. Just found out that a demon is trying to destroy the town and that I’m responsible for stopping it, so you know. A pretty good day,” she said with a grin.

Kat gave a small laugh. “Sounds pretty exciting.”

“Oh, it is,” Anne said, her grin widening. “And how has your day been?”

“Eh, so-so,” Kat said with a shrug. “Found out that a demon is, like, trying to destroy the town and I have to stop it, so you know. A little rough.” She nodded solemnly before a small smile broke onto her face.

“Totally. I got you,” Anne said. They looked at each other with grins until Anne’s smile grew a little smaller and a little more serious. “I just, um … I wanted to say that it’s been cool seeing you around again. I, uh, I missed you.”

“Yeah, me too,” Kat said, biting her lip as she frowned. “Anne, I-I’m sorry I never—”

“Hey, no, no, no,” Anne quickly cut Kat off. “Don’t apologize. I didn’t mean—I don’t blame you for, well, _anything_ really. I just—I want to change that. That we never talk to each other, that is, not the blaming part. I would never blame you for anything that happened.”

Anne’s face was tight as she fiddled with her fingers, and it was obvious that she was nervous. Kat nodded and smiled at Anne’s demeanor, a huge departure from the usual confident attitude she was used to seeing. “Yeah. I want to change that too. That we never speak, obviously,” she clarified, as though it were still necessary to.

Anne’s face slowly relaxed and morphed back into a wide grin. “Cool. Yeah, that’s … cool,” she said, struggling to come up with coherent sentences in her excitement. “Well, I should probably go. Jane offered me a ride, and I don’t want to make her wait too long, but … I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“I mean, like, we don’t really have a choice, seeing as we have to save the world together,” Kat said, tilting her head in a joking manner. “But yeah. I’ll see you.”

“Cool,” Anne said a final time, grinning all the while, and at that Anne bounded off, shouting another quick, “Bye!” towards Anna as well.

Kat watched her cousin reach Jane’s car before turning to actually get into Anna’s car. Anna looked at her smugly, and she could tell what Anna was going to say before she even said it.

“That wasn’t so bad, now was it?”

Kat narrowed her eyes and gave Anna a suspicious look. “… Did you have something to do with this?”

Anna put on an offended look and put her hand on her chest as though she were wounded. “Katherine, I would _never_ interfere in your relationship with your cousin. How could you even suspect that?”

“Oh my God, you totally did though, didn’t you?” Kat said, rolling her eyes. “Literally, just this morning you were saying that Anne wasn’t mature enough to approach me, and what, suddenly she’s changed over the course of a day?”

Anna shrugged. “Well, over the course of a day we realized that there are demons and that we actually do have super strength, so y’know. More surprising things have happened.”

Kat huffed in annoyance, but when she looked over at Anna, she couldn’t help the small smile that came over her face.

“Thanks,” she said, and then the smile fell away as she raised an eyebrow. “But maybe next time don’t meddle in our relationship.”

“Duly noted,” Anna said, a sharp grin forming on her face. “But maybe next time you could be the one to confront Anne first?”

Kat glared at Anna for a moment before shaking her head and sighing.

“Whatever. Just drive,” she said, without any actual anger in her voice. “And don’t you think it’s kind of rude to assume there will be a next time when I’ll have to confront Anne?”

“Honestly, knowing Anne, I wouldn’t be surprised,” Anna said with a laugh, turning the key and starting the engine.

“And what do you know about her?” Kat asked, sounding half skeptical that Anna knew anything about Anne and half curious at what Anna had to say.

Anna shrugged as she pulled out of her parking spot. “Nothing really.”

Kat didn’t look satisfied with that answer, as Anna’s tone indicated that there was more that she wasn’t saying, but it seemed clear that Anna wasn’t going to say much more about it.

Kat stared at Anna for a little longer, who maintained a neutral face, before turning to look back to the road. “Hmph. If you say so.”

\---

The silence during the ride home for Catherine and Cathy was quite uncomfortable, but perhaps it was better than arguing, or so Cathy reasoned. Sure, she understood why Catherine was upset about everything, but also, she wished that Catherine could just get over it.

She glanced over at Catherine, who had a pensive look on her face. She wasn’t even sure if Catherine was paying attention to the road, and she suspected that she was just driving with her muscle memory.

Eventually, however, she seemed to snap out of her thoughts and turned to look at Cathy, finally noticing that Cathy had been staring at her the whole time.

“What?” Catherine asked, a little defensively.

“Nothing,” Cathy said with a shrug and turned her look back to the road. “You just seem a little … upset,” she tried to put lightly.

“Well can you blame me?” she muttered, not really as a question. “The world is ending, and I have to hang out with all of Henry’s _exes_.”

“You already hang out with me, and I’m his ex,” Cathy pointed out.

“That’s different.”

“How?”

Catherine paused, unsure of how to respond. “It just is,” she said, and then tried to offer an actual explanation, “Because I knew you before you were dating him?”

“You also knew Anne before she dated him.”

“Ugh, don’t even mention her,” Catherine practically spat. “She’s the worst of all of them. And now I have to work alongside her?”

“Well maybe you’ll finally get along with her,” Cathy offered, but Catherine seemed even more upset at that idea.

“Yeah, no thanks,” she mumbled.

More silence ensued, until Cathy asked softly, “Is it all really that bad?” When Catherine didn’t respond, Cathy continued, getting more excited, “I mean, there’s an entire history that was hidden from us. Magic is real! How does that even interact with our own concept of science?”

She paused for a moment, feeling almost embarrassed to admit, “And the others seem kind of nice. Out of everyone at school, don’t you think they’d be the easiest to get along with? I mean, they actually understand what it was like dating Henry.”

If Catherine was being honest, she sometimes felt she was the one who least understood what dating Henry was like. The stories that she had heard about him were so unlike the Henry she knew. Other than when he had left her for Anne, she had always thought he had been a genuinely good person. But maybe she had been wrong.

“I don’t know. Maybe,” she finally admitted reluctantly. “But just because someone seems nice doesn’t mean they really are.”

Cathy watched the houses pass by her. They were getting close to hers. “Yeah. Appearances aren’t everything,” she said, and then she turned to look at Catherine again with small smile. “But that’s not always a bad thing. I mean, you seemed mean, and you turned out to be really nice.”

Catherine let out a noise of indignance and offense, taking a quick glance at Cathy before turning back to the road. “I don’t seem mean.”

Cathy grinned and she covered her mouth to try and hide it, but Catherine noticed.

“I don’t!” she repeated, this time more loudly.

“Sorry, but you do. Just a little,” she said, holding up her hand and pinching her fingers together. Catherine frowned in an almost pout, and Cathy laughed. “It’s good though. I like that you’re intimidating.”

“Really?” Catherine asked with a flat tone, taking a skeptical look at Cathy who was still smiling.

“Yeah. It just makes me feel that much better knowing that you’re in my corner,” she said, and Catherine smiled at that.

They finally pulled up in front of Cathy’s house, and Catherine put the gear into park. She looked at Cathy seriously and said, “I’m always in your corner. No matter what.”

“I know,” Cathy said, looking into Catherine’s eyes. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Love you.”

“Love you too,” Catherine said, smiling all the way as Cathy walked up the path to her house. She only pulled out of her parking spot once Cathy had entered her home and closed the door behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I finally wrote a scene where Parr is actually featured. I feel so bad for ignoring her for this long. 
> 
> Also, I get that Power Rangers is supposed to be like space-themed? But I didn't want to do that, sooo you get some fun fantasy Rangers instead, and I'm calling myself valid bc the tv show Power Rangers Samurai was a thing and that was not space-themed either. 
> 
> And yes, I am somewhat attempting to write the Ladies in Waiting even though I have no idea what their personalities are whoops. Sorry to all the liw stans out there.
> 
> EDIT: I can't believe ... I put it in my summary that the big bad would be an alien and then I changed it ... I am a f o o l and this will just be the start of the inconsistencies in this horrible fanfic ...


	5. heard all about these rockin' chicks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why
> 
> is this chapter so long? Why did I feel the need to write every interaction they would have at school? Was any of this necessary? Absolutely not. I didn't even advance the plot at all.
> 
> And also sorry for taking forever to write this, but I hope you can forgive me since this chapter is so fucking LONG and it was so HARD to write.

After a night filled with talk about demons, there really was nothing that pulled you back to reality like having to return to high school the next morning. Knowing that the world could end and having to go to school really cemented the absurdity of everything.

Kat sighed, looking at herself in the mirror with her head tilted. As long as she stood there, she could pretend that her life was still completely normal. She used to have the same exact thoughts right after the whole mess with Henry had happened, except back then “normal” had meant that she had never dated Henry nor gone to that party.

Now though, anything seemed normal compared to the chaos that had occurred over just a weekend.

A buzz from her phone shook her from her thoughts. Anna had just texted her saying that she was running a little late, which was honestly perfect for Kat. That gave her a little time to eat a rushed breakfast before she had to leave.

She collected her binder, books, and purse before heading to the kitchen.

“Morning,” her father greeted her over a cup of coffee and a newspaper as she placed her belongings on the counter. He didn’t make any movements, but his eyes followed her around as she walked around the kitchen and opened the fridge to grab something quick to eat.

“Morning,” she said, as she settled on a yogurt cup, pulling it out and giving her father a quick, tight smile. She grabbed a spoon and had already started to eat, when her dad cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow.

“You’re not going to sit?” he asked, gesturing towards the empty seat across from him.

Kat rolled her eyes as she said, “I mean I have to leave soon for school. Anna will be here any minute to pick me up.” As she said this, though, she still moved towards her father and sat down.

“So. How are you doing?” he asked, looking between her and his newspaper.

“Fine,” she said casually, focusing her gaze on her quickly depleting yogurt.

At this point, her father had lowered his paper and was staring intently at her. “You sure? You’ve been kind of tense for the past few days.”

Kat could almost feel the steel spoon in her hand bending, so she eased her grip on both it and the slightly crushed yogurt cup. She gave an exasperated look to her dad and said, “I already apologized about the cups and the plate.”

“I’m not looking for an apology, I want to know if you’re okay. I’m worried that you—”

Thankfully, Kat’s phone buzzed, alerting her that Anna had finally arrived.

“Sorry dad, gotta go!” she interrupted him, standing up and grabbing her stuff off of the counter. “Oh, by the way, I’m gonna be home a bit late tonight. Bye!”

“Kat!” he shouted after her, but she didn’t stop, quickly moving to slip her shoes on and get out the door. He shouted one last, “I love you!” and at that Kat paused, just as she was shutting the door.

She hesitated and shouted back, “Love you too!” and then closed the door quickly, rushing down to the street where Anna’s car was idling.

“Hey,” Kat said as she opened the door and hopped into the passenger’s seat.

“Hey,” Anna responded, quickly shifting gears and pulling away from the curb. “Sorry I’m late.”

“It’s okay. Everything alright?” Kat asked, looking curiously at Anna. The last time that Anna had been running late, it was because she had been sick and definitely shouldn’t have been heading to school in the first place.

“Yeah, it’s fine.” Anna sounded a little annoyed, but Kat knew it wasn’t directed at her.

“Wanna talk about it?”

Anna’s hands tightened on the wheel before she sighed and relaxed a bit.

“It really is fine. Just got into a bit of a fight with my parents when I told them I was gonna be home late,” Anna shook her head with a grimace. “Apparently it’s irresponsible and puts my academics at risk, which is a load of BS since my grades have always been fine.”

“I’m sorry,” Kat said with a wince and a frown. Anna didn’t usually like talking about her personal life, but Kat knew that Anna had a lot of pressure from her parents to excel. “That’s awful.”

Anna’s face relaxed into a small smile as she glanced at Kat. “It’s ok. It’s not all that bad. I convinced them to let me stay out, and besides, it’s not like they could really stop me.”

Kat tilted her head at that. “I guess that’s true. But next time they give you trouble, you can always say that you’re helping me study.”

Anna laughed. “Yeah right. As if you’d ever need help with studying.”

“I’m just saying. Your parents don’t know that,” Kat said with a grin.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Anna said, looking towards her with a smile. “Thanks, Kat.”

Kat simply smiled back.

\---

Cathy was sadly awakened by the buzzing of her cell phone on her bedside table, her eyes shooting open at the sound. Two thoughts hit her in quick succession: “Is it next morning?” and “Oh God, I forgot to set an alarm.”

She grabbed the phone, and seeing Catherine’s name on the screen, she quickly swiped and put it up to her ear.

“Please tell me you’re already up,” Catherine’s voice came through.

“Mmm, I’m up?” Cathy said, voice thick with sleep.

Cathy heard Catherine give an exasperated sigh. “Cathy! I’m outside of your house _right now_. We have to go, or we’ll be late.”

“Sorry, I’ll be down real quick okay?” Cathy said, shoving her sheets off of her. “Gimme five minutes, tops.”

Catherine sounded like she was about to chastise Cathy more, but Cathy hung up, rushing to throw on some clothes and make herself presentable.

Besides her usual sleep deprivation problems, last night she had had trouble falling asleep due to the thoughts of the next day, which were now the current day. She hadn’t been too worried about the demon thing, and in fact, she was probably less worried about that than she should have been.

Instead, the thing Cathy had been most worried about was school, actually. Or rather, she was worried about seeing the others in classes and in the hallways. Now that they were on a team together, Cathy knew it would be super awkward trying to act normal around each other when their “normal” had previously meant ignoring each other.

It wasn’t that Cathy didn’t want to be friends with the others, but she couldn’t help but feeling a little worried about getting to know them. Especially with Anne, knowing how poorly she and Catherine got along. Cathy shared a couple of her classes with both Catherine and Anne, which meant the usual tension that she had to deal with between those two was about to skyrocket.

These thoughts ran through her head as she rinsed her mouth with mouthwash and spit it in the sink. She stared at herself, seeing her uncertain face staring back at her. Suddenly, her phone buzzed, snapping her back to focus.

**Catherine de Aragon**: It’s been five minutes

**Catherine de Aragon**: If you’re not down in the next minute, I swear I’m coming up to get you myself

**Catherine Parr**: comijg

She rushed out of the bathroom, quickly grabbing her things, stuffing them into her backpack, and slinging it over her shoulder as she raced out the front door.

“Finally,” Catherine said as Cathy jumped in and slammed the door behind her. She pulled out and looked over at Cathy once she was back on the road. “How can you have just woken up?”

“Sorry,” Cathy said, slightly out of breath. “I guess I didn’t sleep very well last night.”

Catherine frowned in sympathy. “Understandable, but if we’re late to class, you’re gonna have to answer to my mom.”

“That’s fine with me. Your mom loves me,” Cathy laughed, and Catherine scowled because she knew it was true. Cathy had a habit of staying over at Catherine’s place, often when they were hanging out and Catherine was too lazy to drive her back home. As a result, Catherine’s parents were well-acquainted with her.

She was honestly so grateful that Catherine let her stay over whenever she wanted to. It happened often enough by then that there was no need to actually thank Catherine for it—at a certain point, Catherine had started getting annoyed at her constantly saying “thank you”—but she knew she was incredibly lucky that Catherine’s home was so welcoming.

It wasn’t quite that her own home was unwelcoming, but it was so quiet. If she was honest, it was completely possible that Catherine’s home was just as quiet. She supposed what made Catherine’s home so comforting then was that it had Catherine in it.

“Are you okay, though?” Catherine asked, and Cathy could tell that any annoyance Catherine might have had before was gone, replaced by worry.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Cathy said, giving a smile to soothe Catherine’s worried glances. “I was just thinking about how I have to see all of the others in my classes with them today.”

“All of them?” Catherine said, raising both of her eyebrows.

Cathy nodded. “Yeah. All of them.”

“Even Kat? I thought she was a year younger than us.”

“I share Spanish with her. She must have taken it in middle school,” Cathy tried to explain.

Catherine blew out air slowly and said, “That’s rough.” She then narrowed her eyebrows and said, “Wait, why are you nervous? I thought you wanted to get to know them?”

“I did. I do! I just—” Cathy bit her lip, unsure of how to explain her nerves. “I guess I’m just worried that it won’t go well. Like maybe they’ll actually be terrible people, or maybe I just won’t like them, or maybe they won’t like me! I want to get along with them, but … what if I don’t?”

“Cathy, if they don’t get along with you, then that’s their problem. You’re incredible.”

“Okay, but I’m also not exactly my best self when I’m around people I don’t know,” Cathy insisted. “I’ll be … awkward.”

“Ok look, I get that. I still remember when we first met, and yeah, you were a bit of a mess,” Catherine said, and Cathy closed her eyes tight at the memory of it. “But that didn’t stop me from getting to know the real you. They’ll love you, even if it takes time.”

Cathy smiled at Catherine and wrapped a careful hug around her, despite Catherine’s noises of protest. “Thanks.”

“Of course. Now please, this is dangerous,” Catherine scolded, and Cathy chuckled as she removed herself.

“It was worth it,” Cathy said, and judging by Catherine’s failed attempts to hide a smile, Catherine thought so too.

\---

Anne leaped down from her window to her backyard. She looked back up to her room on the second floor with a grin. She was still getting used to having super strength, but she couldn’t imagine ever getting tired of that feeling.

When she first figured out she had super strength, she had spent time jumping around the forest from tree to tree. She loved the feeling of falling, the way that the world almost disappeared and all that you had was the rush of the wind.

Jumping out the window was probably a bit excessive, but she just didn’t feel like spending time around her mother or father, who were probably in the kitchen right now doing whatever the hell they usually did to prepare in the morning. And she knew they didn’t like being around her either, so she figured she’d make it easier for all of them and just skip that mess completely.

As she headed towards school, her mind couldn’t help but think about how the school day was going to go, especially since she shared almost all of her classes with Catherine.

Just like with her family, she and Catherine had gotten good at avoiding each other. Despite their multiple shared classes, it was quite impressive how good they had gotten at ignoring each other’s presence.

Except now things were different, weren’t they? Now they had discovered a secret base and had found out they were on a demon-fighting team together. A team that had to work together.

Anne’s face twisted in bitterness. She had been so excited to find out she was a Ranger, and of course Catherine had to ruin it. She still didn’t get why Catherine was still so angry at her. Like, yeah, she had messed up, but it was two years ago. Why couldn’t she just get over it?

Anne shook her head as she tried to shake such thoughts out of her head. She had been thinking about Catherine too much. Really, any amount of thinking about Catherine was too much, but lately her thoughts kept coming back to Catherine no matter how hard she tried to think of anything else.

She stopped as she suddenly realized that she had already reached school already. Had she really walked that quickly? Anne started to understand how Anna might have run 25 miles in an hour, if Anne could have walked so quickly without even realizing it.

Anne realized she might even be on time for class, and so she picked up her speed. As she approached the class, she heard quick footsteps behind her. She turned around to see none other than rushing Catherine behind her to reach their shared first period class.

Anne’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, and Catherine’s face turned sour at the sight of Anne’s face, but neither of them slowed down. They entered class at the same time, drawing some looks of surprise, and sat in their seats right as the bell for the start of class rang.

Jane, who also shared their class, gave her a questioning look, which Anne responded to with a shake of her head.

Anne spared a look towards Catherine to find the other girl staring at her with her eyebrows narrowed. As soon as their eyes met however, Catherine snapped her attention back towards the front of the class where their teacher had started speaking.

Anne stared at Catherine for a moment further before turning back to the teacher.

Well, she supposed this was some sort of improvement. At least now Catherine had stopped ignoring her.

\---

Jane’s morning was nothing out of the usual. She woke up to an empty house, since her mother always left early to drop Edward off at the daycare and go to work, and started getting ready for school as always. Except this morning, she couldn’t get rid of the guilty feeling that had started last night.

The previous night Jane had told her mother that she would be out late again, lying that it was school related but telling the truth that it was important. Even though her mother assured her it would be fine, Jane felt guilty. She knew how hard it was for her mother to provide for another unexpected child, and she couldn’t help but think about how it was all her fault.

Her mother had been lucky enough to have a job that she could partially do from home, but it still wasn’t ideal. Even if Jane picked up Edward from the daycare after school, her mother would still have to leave work early in order to take care of him once Jane had to leave for their Ranger training.

And if this was going to become her regular schedule, she wasn’t sure they could keep it up.

Such thoughts plagued her all the whole morning until her first class started as Anne and Catherine entered the class together. She didn’t bother hiding her surprise, and neither did the rest of her classmates.

When class ended, she saw Catherine quickly grab her belongings and leave immediately, being one of the first to exit the room. Jane gathered her own books up and approached Anne, who clearly looked like she was just waking up from a nap.

“Seriously? You fell asleep in first period?” Jane asked incredulously.

“I fall asleep in all of my classes,” Anne mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. “Besides, it’s just math. I can just read the textbook.”

The idea of Anne studying seemed doubtful to Jane, but she didn’t voice that and instead asked, “So you and Catherine made quite the entrance this morning.”

That woke Anne up as she rolled eyes and groaned, “Ugh. Trust me, it was _not _intentional. Did you see the nasty look she gave me?”

“No? I’m pretty sure that’s just how she looks at everyone,” Jane said, thinking about Catherine. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that she’d never seen Catherine smile.

“Or maybe you just think that because she always gives you a nasty look too,” Anne proposed, finally putting her books in her bag and standing up.

Jane frowned at that as they headed out of class. “Why would she? I mean, we barely know each other.”

“Because you’re Henry’s ex, duh,” Anne said, and Jane shifted uncomfortably at the mention of Henry. “I’m pretty sure she hates all of us for ever having caught his eye.”

“That can’t be true,” Jane said, trying not to think of Henry too much. “She always hangs out with Cathy, after all.”

“Well yeah, but Cathy’s different for some reason,” Anne said, and then she suddenly narrowed her eyes. “And why does everyone call her that? Am I the only one who didn’t know she goes by Cathy?”

Jane tilted her head at that. “I mean, she asks to go by Cathy in class.”

“No, she doesn’t,” Anne said, and they slowed down as they reached where they would have to part ways to get to their next classes. “What class do you have with her?”

“Creative Writing,” Jane said. “She goes by Catherine in your classes?”

“Yeah, and Aragon’s in all those classes, so they have to do the last name initial thing.”

“But she’s the only Catherine in our class, so she doesn’t even need to go by Cathy there if she didn’t want to,” Jane said, tilting her head in confusion.

They stared at each other for a while with their eyebrows furrowed until Anne said, “Weird.”

“Weird,” Jane agreed, still deep in thought.

They stood there for a little longer, pondering on how weird it was, until Anne said, “Well anyway, I’ll see you later.”

Jane nodded and said her own, “See you,” before turning away to head to her next period.

She realized how little she knew about Cathy, and all the others for that matter. Everything she knew, she had heard through rumors, and the others would probably say the same about Jane herself. She had never expected nor wanted to befriend Henry’s other exes, but now they were a team, and Jane was determined to get to know them.

\---

Anna raced through the halls to reach her first period class in time. It seemed ironic to her that she might end up late to class because her parents had argued with her about being academically responsible, but she knew her parents wouldn’t see it that way.

Funnily enough, she ran into Cathy halfway to her class. She had often seen her and Catherine arriving to school together, which meant that both of them must have been late.

Anna grinned and said, “You and Catherine are running late today too, huh? Seems like a trend.”

Cathy didn’t say anything back, but she did smile shyly back at Anna as they burst into the class together, barely getting into their seats by the bell.

Anna wasn’t too bothered by Cathy’s lack of response. She hadn’t exactly expected Cathy to be talkative, considering they had never spoken before. Still, after first period ended, she gathered her stuff and waited for Cathy.

The other girl looked a little surprised, but she didn’t say anything. She only started to put her things away faster than before.

“Take your time,” Anna said with an amused look on her face. “There’s no rush. We’re both heading to the same place anyway.”

They shared their first two classes together, and the walk to second period was pretty short.

“Right,” Cathy said a little embarrassed, but she did indeed slow down in her actions and seemed a bit calmer.

“How are you and Catherine feeling today?” Anna asked as soon as Cathy had stood up with all of her things. “You two had a late start too, huh?”

“We’re okay,” she responded, following Anna out the door. “I just forgot to set my alarm. How about you and … Katherine?”

Anna laughed. “She goes by Kat. And it was just a bad morning. We’re doing okay. Or well, as okay as we can be expected to be doing with everything.”

Cathy nodded. “That’s … good.”

Anna could tell that she was nervous, and so she picked up the conversation again. “You must be excited to go back tonight though, right? You seemed pretty into the magic stuff yesterday.”

At that Cathy’s face seemed to light up a little. “Yeah, actually. I’m interested in learning more about magic and how the history of it all could have been lost. Joan said she would be willing to tell me more, and so I’m hoping today I’ll be able to ask.” Cathy stopped and then seemed a little embarrassed at having said so much, but Anna continued the conversation.

“That’s really cool,” she said with a grin. “I’m glad at least someone else other than Anne is having fun with this.”

Cathy breathed out a laugh as she caught Anna’s eyes. “Yeah. It’s a shame the others aren’t as thrilled. I mean, I can kind of get it. I guess I don’t really like the thought of fighting demons that much either. I just try not to think about it too hard though.”

“That’s honestly so valid,” Anna said with a nod. “I honestly think having an entire night to wonder what we’re getting into was the wrong move. At least if we’d started training yesterday, we would know _something_.”

“Yeah,” Cathy said, going a little quiet. She seemed to be staring at nothing, off in her thoughts, and so Anna nudged her with her elbow.

“Hey look, no matter how bad this whole mess is, at least we’re in good company. Except for Anne maybe,” Anna joked, and Cathy let out a real laugh this time, causing Anna’s smile to grow even wider.

They finally reached their class, and with a final smile towards each other, they split up to head to their desks.

\---

Catherine couldn’t believe she had to share four periods with Anne, and she had to do two of them without Cathy there to help as a buffer.

Usually, she found that she could ignore Anne well enough, but ever since the weekend, she couldn’t stop thinking about Anne. During class, without realizing it her eyes would wander towards Anne, at which point she had to snap her attention back to class.

At least Catherine didn’t have to worry about Anne catching her staring, since Anne was usually falling asleep at any given moment.

When third period finally arrived, she was so grateful to see Cathy sit down next to her seat, looking rather cheerful.

“Seems like you’ve had a good day,” Catherine said with a smile, finding Cathy’s happiness contagious.

“It’s been going better than expected,” Cathy admitted. “I’ve been speaking with Anna, and she’s really cool. I can’t believe I never talked to her before.”

“See, I told you you’d be fine,” Catherine said with a grin.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I don’t know why I ever doubt you,” Cathy said, shaking her head. “And how about you? How’s your day been?”

Catherine grimaced, and Cathy mimicked her look, asking, “That bad?”

“No, not _that_ bad, but not ideal either. I can’t stop thinking about Anne, ugh,” Catherine said, glancing over at Anne’s seat, where the girl was already napping before class had even started. Catherine buried her head in her hands and said with a muffled voice, “Why did she have to be a Ranger? I just keep dreading tonight.”

“Hey, maybe it’ll be fine,” Cathy reassured her. “I mean, we don’t even know what we’re doing tonight. You might not have to do anything with her.”

Catherine looked up, clearly appearing miserable. “Yeah. Maybe,” she said, feeling a little bit better as Cathy gave her a hopeful smile.

And so the next two periods went by better with Cathy by her side, to the point where she didn’t feel herself glancing at Anne as often as before.

\---

Jane shared two of her classes with Anna, which went by as well as you would expect from the two most chill ones in the group. When they talked, it was almost as though they had been friends before.

“You’re kidding,” Jane whispered, her mouth wide open. “25 miles? In one hour?”

“Yup,” Anna said, looking pretty smug. “Pretty cool, right?”

Jane glanced around her, ready to be told that she was being pranked.

“Wow,” she said. “I didn’t even know that I had super strength until Anne told me. Which I guess is good. I’m glad I didn’t break anything. Or hurt anyone.”

She thought of Edward specifically as she said that last part. She probably wouldn’t have ever hurt him considering how carefully she handled him, but she still shivered at the idea.

“Yeah, that’s true. I know that Kat broke some cups and a plate.”

Jane winced at that. “That sounds terrifying. Accidentally breaking glass in your hands and not knowing why it’s happening.”

After their fourth period, Anna said to her, “Hey, if you wanted, you should sit with me and Kat. We could get in some team bonding before tonight.”

Jane hesitated for a moment. She had spent a long time sitting by herself ever since she had gotten pregnant, and she was nervous about sitting with other people again.

But she didn’t have any real reason to say no, and so she nodded. “Yeah, sure. That sounds nice.”

Anna beamed at her and said, “Great! C’mon, we sit over here.”

When they reached the table, Kat was already seated, scrolling through her phone absentmindedly as she picked at her lunch tray. Jane felt a twinge of something in her chest. She had heard the rumors, just like everyone else. It was strange, seeing Kat look just like any other student, and yet Jane wasn’t sure what else she had expected.

“Kat! Hey! I got Jane to sit with us! Cool right?” Anna called out.

Kat looked up, looking between Anna and Jane, smiling after a moment. “Yeah that’s great! And what about the others? You invite them?”

Kat looked excited, but Anna just had an apologetic look on her face as she pulled out her phone and checked it.

“Sorry, Kitty. I don’t think the others are gonna join,” she said, looking up from her phone and shaking her head.

Kat’s face fell a little, but she quickly put a different smile on to cover it up. “That’s alright. It’s no big deal.”

Jane thought she had an idea of what was going on. After all, everyone knew that Anne had punched that boy because of Kat, and last night she saw how Anne went to talk to Kat before she joined Jane at her car. Jane put two and two together to realize there was probably a specific person Kat was hoping for.

“Were you hoping that Anne would join?” Jane asked to confirm her suspicions as she sat down at the table, and with Kat’s surprised face, she knew she had hit the mark.

“Was it that obvious?” Kat said, looking a little nervous.

“Not at all,” Jane said with a shake of her head. “I guess I’ve just been spending a little bit of time with Anne lately. I figured you two seemed kind of close.”

“Does she talk about me?” Kat asked.

“Sorry, not really,” Jane said with an apologetic smile. “Though we aren’t exactly close, so she doesn’t talk about much of anything to me.”

Kat nod of understanding as she mouthed, “Ah.”

“Hopefully I can make up for her absence, though,” Jane said apologetically.

“Oh don’t worry, you’re already doing loads better than Anne,” Anna laughed, for which Kat elbowed her for.

“Don’t be mean. Anne’s not that bad,” Kat said defensively, and when Anna snorted, Kat protested even more, “She’s not!”

“Kat’s right. Anne’s not _that_ bad,” Jane said, and Kat looked surprised but also pleased to have some support. “She’s only moderately bad most of the time.”

Anna let out an even louder laugh as Kat started to pout.

“Sorry, sorry,” Jane apologized with a chuckle.

“Don’t be,” Anna said. “Soon you’ll realize just how fun it can be to tease Kat, and there’s no coming back from that.”

“Oh great. Are you two always gonna team up against me now?” Kat said, crossing her arms and glaring between the two of them.

“Of course not,” Jane said reassuringly, before locking eyes with Anna and grinning. “Only most of the time.”

\---

Cathy had declined Anna’s invitation to sit with her for lunch, as she didn’t want to force Catherine into sitting with the others. She knew that Catherine was still getting used to the whole “being around Henry’s other exes thing,” and she didn’t want to put more pressure on her to already start befriending them.

Besides, she knew she would see the others in her next classes after lunch. She shared Creative Writing with Jane, who seemed ready to befriend Cathy even if Cathy herself looked less than enthusiastic. She wasn’t sure if Anna had said something about her to Jane, but the moment that Jane saw her, she smiled brightly and waved. Cathy gave a small, uncertain wave back from her seat as class began.

During class, they had a free writing period, in which the class was allowed to move around and sit where they wanted. Maybe she should have expected it, but Cathy was surprised when Jane approached her.

“Mind if I sit here?” she asked, pointing to an empty seat by Cathy. Cathy simply nodded, as Jane took a seat.

“I just figured you might like the company, since you usually sit alone,” Jane said, placing her notebook in front of her.

Cathy once again simply nodded, unsure of what to say. She didn’t mind being alone, she thought, but she also didn’t mind not being alone, and she didn’t want to offend Jane by insinuating that her company was unwelcome.

She was worried that her silence would already give Jane the impression that she didn’t like her, but Jane seemed unperturbed, simply opening her notebook and working on the assignment due in a few classes.

Cathy looked back down at her notebook and started working as well. Their next assignment was to create a short story, which wasn’t exactly one of Cathy’s strengths. She preferred writing poetry, but they were in the narrative writing section of the class. Poetry wasn’t for a few more weeks.

She was currently stuck at a section that didn’t seem to flow properly, and it was clear she was struggling by the number of crossed out lines she had written.

She looked up in frustration to see Jane struggling in a similar manner. Her face was contorted in a frown as she tapped her pencil against her chin. When she noticed Cathy looking at her, her face relaxed into a smile.

“I’ll admit, I’m not the best at writing,” she confessed. “I might be a little out of my depths.”

Cathy shrugged. “Writing isn’t about being the best at it. It’s just about enjoying it. Besides,” she said, a wry smile forming on her face, “I’m not the best at this kind of writing either. I like poetry more myself.”

“Well I don’t know if I can say there is a type of writing I do prefer, but thanks for the assurance,” Jane said. “I took this class out of curiosity, and I get the feeling I’m the only one who isn’t absolutely in love with writing.”

Cathy smiled wider at that. “Don’t worry. I think it’s nice that you were willing to try it out, even if it’s not your thing.”

Jane beamed back at her, and they returned to struggling through their assignments in silence. Still, that one interaction was enough for Cathy to feel a bit more comfortable with Jane’s company for the rest of the class.

\---

If Kat was being real, Catherine scared her. Even if Catherine never actually interacted with her, just seeing her in their Choir class was scary enough.

And now, Catherine was more aware of her because of the Ranger business. Which was not exactly ideal.

“You’re being ridiculous,” Anna said as Kat stared at Catherine across the room. “She’s not going to attack you or something just because she’s seen you outside of school, what, twice now?”

Kat pouted at Anna, who simply shook her head and rolled her eyes. “I don’t know why you’re scared of her anyway. She’s not even that mean.”

“I have never seen her smile. Not once!” Kat half-whispered, glancing at Catherine. “And she always has this half-annoyed look on her face, like I’ve just personally attacked her or something.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s just how she looks,” Anna said flatly.

“You don’t know that,” Kat said glancing at Catherine. Catherine suddenly glanced over, meeting her eyes, and Kat immediately looked away. “Oh my God, she just looked at me. And with the look!”

Anna smacked her face with her hand in exasperation, but she had a smile on her face.

“Well, if you’re scared of her now, wait until we’re training to kill demons. She’ll be even more terrifying then.”

Kat was about to complain about Anna teasing her when the teacher called for the beginning of class, and they split up into their sections. The whole class, she couldn’t help but stare at the back of Catherine’s head.

Other than Catherine’s feud with Anne, she was well known for having quite the temper, and Kat did not want to be on the end of it. She didn’t have a real reason that Catherine would be angry at her, but Kat couldn’t shake the feeling that Catherine didn’t like her.

After that class, she still didn’t get a break as she traded one Catherine for another, getting Cathy Parr in her final class of the day.

Kat didn’t have the same fear about Cathy, but knowing that the girl was friends was Catherine was already enough to make her nervous.

She noticed that Cathy never smiled either, which didn’t put Kat at any more ease. Despite Anna’s insistence that Cathy was perfectly nice, Kat was nervous to share a class with her.

As she sat down, she noticed Cathy staring at her a bit, before looking away towards the notebooks on her desk. Kat wasn’t sure what that meant, but it certainly hadn’t made her feel any more calm.

By the end of the day, she and Cathy had only shared that quick glance before the class ended and they parted ways.

\---

Anne and Jane finished the day with their shared Film Studies class and had fell into casual conversation.

“So how was your day?” Jane asked, feeling quite satisfied with the day herself.

“The usual,” Anne said with a shrug. “Aragon gave me a couple more glares than usual, but that’s it. How about you?”

“It was good,” Jane said with a smile, and Anne looked at Jane in curiosity. “I got to talk with a lot of the others, and they’re all really nice! Well, except for Catherine I suppose. I only share first period with her, and I don’t think she was eager to stay behind to chat.”

“Don’t worry, it’s not you,” Anne said, her nose wrinkled slightly out of bitterness. “I don’t think she gets along with anyone. Except _Cathy_.”

“Well, maybe she’s just shy,” Jane offered, causing Anne to snort. “Anyways, we missed you at lunch. I sat with Anna and Kat today.”

“Sorry,” Anne said, sounding genuinely apologetic. “I don’t really like being indoors.”

Jane nodded at that. She was sure that that wasn’t the real reason Anne hadn’t joined them, but she let it slide. “Right, well at least you’ll get to be outdoors tonight. If you count the inside of a cave as outdoors.”

“That’s good enough for me,” Anne said with a grin. “I’ve been thinking about it all day, and I can’t wait.”

“Speaking of tonight, and all future trainings I guess, I don’t think I can give you a ride anymore,” Jane said, frowning a little. “I need to pick up Edward from the daycare since my mom has work. Yesterday was just different because she had that day off. I hope that’s alright.”

“Yeah, of course. I like walking anyways. Just gives me more time outside,” Anne said with a reassuring smile, and Jane smiled in response.

They bid each other farewell as Anne started her walk towards the forest in anticipation of their meeting later that night. She was ready to spesnd the extra time exploring the forest.

The other five girls continued with their daily routine, with Jane picking up Edward, Kat and Anna at cheer and soccer practice, and Catherine and Cathy heading back to Catherine’s house.

Regardless of what they were doing though, all six girls had their coming night of training on the forefront of their minds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I did actually create full schedules for all of them. I know what each of them takes every period, and I had to google what juniors in high school take in order to figure it out.


	6. uh oh, here we go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all I just had the revelation that when Catherine and Anna are "of" Aragon and Cleves, that's like literally their names, but translated. Like their names are Anna von Cleves and Catherine de Aragon. Now I gotta change their names from before bc I am a fool.
> 
> Also I once again apologize for slow updates. I'm afraid this might just be my life :(

“Welcome back, everyone,” Maggie greeted everyone with a grin on her face. “I hope you’re all feeling alright today.”

Maggie looked the most cheerful out of all the Ladies in Waiting, but the others seemed to be in similarly high spirits, a stark contrast to their solemn mood the other day. It seemed as though taking a night off had been what they needed to adjust to waking up in the present time.

“Today will be your official introduction to becoming a Power Ranger,” Maggie continued. “Before we get into the actual training, we want to tell you more about the powers that the coins give you.”

“If you’re talking about the super strength, I’m pretty sure everyone knows about it already,” Catherine interjected, standing with her arms crossed. “I mean, it’s hard to not notice when everything around you is suddenly way more fragile than it used to be.” Her eyes were thin in a glare, and it was obvious that Catherine must have broken some of her belongings before she realized her new strength.

“Right, sorry about that,” Maggie said with a wince. “Now that you have super strength, you’ll have to be careful when interacting with the world around you as you get used to it. But other than the strength, there’s more you should know about before we begin. Along with enhanced strength and endurance, you also have accelerated healing.”

“Oh yeah, I noticed that one!” Anne suddenly shouted as she presented her knuckles to the group. “I had some pretty nasty bruises on my knuckles, and then after Saturday, they suddenly healed overnight!”

“But that’s not all!” Maggie said. “Most importantly, you also get your own armor and weaponry, custom-made just for you.”

“Seriously? That’s so cool,” Anne said, a grin forming on her face.

“I didn’t notice an armory when you were showing us around the other night,” Anna questioned.

“That’s because we don’t have an armory,” Bessie said, with a knowing smirk. “The armor and weapon come from inside of your Power Coin.”

The six girls stared at her.

“Are you serious?” Cathy asked. “They’re _inside _the Coins?”

“I mean, I’m honestly not that surprised,” Anna said with a shrug. “We just found out that demons and magic are real. You could tell me anything at this point and it’d be believable.”

“So how do we get them out of the Coins?” Anne said, wanting to get to the good part.

“You have to summon them out,” Maggie said.

“Okay,” Cathy said, drawing out the end. “And how do we do that?”

“It should just come to you if you focus on it,” Joan tried to elaborate. “It shouldn’t be an effort. After all, if you’re in the middle of the fight, you don’t exactly want to be struggling to get your armor on.”

“Okay but saying that it’s supposed to be easy doesn’t exactly make it easy,” Anne said, squinting her eyes at Joan.

“You need to tap into what it means to be a Power Ranger. At least, that’s what I’ve heard from previous Rangers,” Bessie said with a shrug.

Suddenly, yellow armor started forming around Catherine, spreading out from her chest. She looked at the other five girls with wide eyes as the armor encased her whole body and finished by forming a helmet around her head. From her hand a longsword also formed, extending from a golden hilt.

Everyone stared in shock, and Maggie broke the silence by saying, “Wow, that is the fastest anyone has summoned both their armor and weapon.”

“How did you do that?” Cathy asked, her mouth wide open.

“I—I don’t know,” Catherine said. She looked down at her body and then turned her attention to the sword, turning it over in her hand. “It’s like Joan said. It just … came naturally. I wasn’t even thinking of anything really.”

“How can you not have been thinking of anything? You must have been thinking of _something_,” Cathy asked, her brows furrowed.

Catherine simply shrugged, causing Cathy to groan.

Then, she saw a red flash out of the corner of her eye. Anna had her eyes closed as her armor formed around her.

“Oh, that’s cool,” Anna said once it had finished, holding her hands in front of her.

“Did it just ‘come naturally’ for you too?” Anne asked, using air quotes with a flat look on her face.

“Kinda,” Anna said. “I mean, I was just thinking about what Bessie said. Y’know what it means to be a Power Ranger?”

“Okay, and what does it mean to be a Power Ranger?” Kat asked, her face scrunched up in confusion and uncertainty.

“Uh, I don’t know. I didn’t really think of an answer before the armor started appearing.”

This caused groans to come from Anne, Kat, and Cathy, all of whom were clearly struggling to get into the right mindset.

“The answer will be different for everyone,” Joan said in an attempt to placate them. “Maybe try thinking more about why _you_ are a Ranger than what makes a Ranger.”

“But wasn’t it just coincidence?” Kat asked. “I mean, if Anna and I hadn’t happened to be running through the woods at that time, we wouldn’t be here.”

“The Coins don’t pick people by chance. You’re here for a reason, whether you realize it or not,” Maria said.

“But how come they didn’t have to think about that stuff?” Anne said, jerking her thumbs at both Catherine and Anna.

“Well, it means they already have a deep understanding of being a Ranger without having to think about it much,” Joan said.

“By the way,” Bessie said, turning to Catherine and Anna. “you can take off the helmets if you just focus on it, like how you focused to summon it.” As their helmets disappeared, Bessie added, “You can also put away the sword the same way.” Catherine looked down at her sword and watched it retract into nothing.

“Cool,” she said, looking at her now empty palm.

“That is _really_ cool,” Anne said bitterly. She closed her eyes in her own attempt to summon her armor.

Cathy and Kat were about to follow suit when Jane started forming her own armor. Same as with Catherine and Anna, armor grew outward from her chest.

“I get it now,” Jane said once it had finished, retracting her helmet as she did. “I was thinking about Edward and my mom and wanting to protect them, but then I realized it was more than that. It was …” She trailed off unsure of how to finish the sentence.

“It was what? What was it?” Cathy practically begged. “Literally none of this is making sense to me.”

Anne still had her eyes scrunched closed in concentration until Maggie said, “Anne, honey, if you’re trying that hard to summon it, you’re doing it wrong.”

Anne let out a groan of frustration. “This is never going to work!”

“Okay, well how about we move on for now,” Maggie said, clapping her hands together. “It might be better if we have you work on summoning your armor at another time. Maybe give you some time to figure it out a bit more.”

The three unarmored girls looked at each other glumly as Maggie went on.

“Some final information about the Coins: whenever there is magical activity going on nearby, your Coin will alert you by sending you a feeling that something is happening. It's hard to describe, but you’ll know it when you feel it. It won’t tell you where or what it is, but it’ll let you know that something is going on.”

“And finally, we will be using them as a way to communicate with you by sending signals out to them, like this.”

Instantly, every one of the Rangers straightened, feeling alert. Maggie smiled at their confused but focused expressions.

“If you feel that, that means that we need you suited up. Once you have your armor on, we’ll be able to talk to you through your helmets. You can also communicate with each other the same way. You just need to focus on who you’re trying to contact.”

“And remember,” Bessie added on, “you need your Coins near you to receive these signals, and you need your Coin on you to summon your armor.”

The six nodded in understanding, holding their Coins tighter.

“Now then!” Maggie said, an almost scary grin forming back on her face. “Time to get to the real training.”

\---

They started out with a warm-up that already had Anne complaining and rethinking her excitement for training, and then followed that with teaching hand-to-hand combat.

“Even though you will get weapons later on, this will teach you basic combat sense and act as a step to more specialized training,” Maggie had explained. “Besides, you might find yourself needing to fight hand-to-hand anyway, so it’s good to know.”

Maggie lead most of the training with the other Ladies in Waiting speaking up and demonstrating whenever it was appropriate. She started with proper fighting stances, which she explained would be different later for their different weapons, and they did exercises in movement.

Then they moved into simple dodging and blocking techniques, which were arguably more important than offensive techniques.

“Cause I’m pretty sure you all know how to throw a punch, but dodging one is a whole different game,” Maggie said, and then after a pause continued with, “In case you don’t know how to throw a punch though, just remember: thumb on the outside.”

They cycled through being paired with each of the Ladies in Waiting where they practiced the techniques.

“I thought this training would involve actually using the simulation room,” Anne complained as she switched out of training and sat by Kat.

“Seriously?” Kat said, giving Anne a doubtful look. “You want to get beat up by monster simulations?”

“How do you know I wouldn’t be beating them up?” Anne protested. Kat laughed at her, causing Anne to frown even more.

“Anne, you’ve never trained for anything, like, ever,” Kat said, still laughing a little between words. “There’s no way you’d beat them up. You’d get taken down, like, instantly.”

“Would not. I could take down at least five monsters,” Anne said, lifting her chin in indignance while Kat continued to stifle her giggles.

“Oh, is that so?” Maggie said, raising an eyebrow at Anne. The current cycle had finished, and everyone had heard Anne’s latest boast.

Anne could tell she was in trouble, but she wasn’t one to back down. “Yeah. I mean, I took down that one dude at school, so like how hard could it be?”

“Didn’t a teacher break that fight up immediately once you punched him?” Jane questioned, having heard the gossip about it in class.

“Besides, he was just a teenage boy, not a literal rock monster,” Anna said with her hand on her hip.

“Yeah, but now I’ve got super strength,” Anne said, clenching her fists together, “so it’s basically evened out now. I could take down a rock monster.”

“If I recall, you said five rock monsters, actually,” Maggie said with a smirk, “and if you’re so confident, how about you prove it to us. I’ve been wanting to start up the simulation room ever since we woke up.”

“Bring it on,” Anne said with a smirk. Yeah, she was definitely in trouble.

Maggie closed her eyes and suddenly the room around them shifted into an arena-looking area. Before them five rock monsters formed from the dirt and stared them down.

Maggie opened her eyes and smiled. “Okay Anne. They’re all yours.”

Anne gulped as she stared at the monsters. She looked at the others who all backed away to watch the fight from a safe distance. They all looked relatively amused, which didn’t give Anne any confidence.

“Okay,” she whispered to herself. “I can do this. I have super strength. I can jump to the top of the trees in the forest. I punched a teenage boy in the face. Okay.”

She balled her hands into fists and started to move towards the monsters.

That seemed to really start the simulation as the monsters started to approach her as well. She punched the first one she reached, shouting out in pain as her fist connected. She had taken out a huge chunk in the monster, but it had also taken a chunk out of her fist.

“What the fuck?” she shouted, backing away, and holding her bloody fist.

“Ooh, yeah I should’ve warned you,” Maggie said with a wince. “You might be more durable than a regular human, but you’re still punching solid rock. That’s … kind of the point of having your armor.”

“Ugh, that fucking armor,” Anne cursed under her breath, but she didn’t have much time to complain, because the monsters were still approaching her.

The one she put a dent into was struggling behind the pack, and so she decided to focus on it. Using her jumping ability that she had fooled around with when she first found out about her powers, she jumped behind the pack and kicked the monster, causing it to fully crumble.

“Fuck!” she shouted as she jumped backwards, hopping on one leg and grabbing her foot. “Ooooooh that hurt.”

“Should we … stop this simulation?” Kat asked, her eyebrows creased in worry. “This seems really painful.”

Maggie nodded, about to agree when Anne shouted, “No! I said I could take down five, I’m gonna take down five!”

“She is so dumb,” Catherine said, shaking her head in disbelief.

“I heard that!”

Anne stared down the other four that were approaching her. She steeled herself and took a breath. One down, four to go. She just had to ignore the throbbing pain in her hand and foot.

She nodded and then charged. The monsters noted this and began charging at her too. Once again, she moved to punch the monster closest to her, bracing herself for the pain, when she realized it didn’t hurt at all.

She opened her eyes and realized she was in her armor. She laughed out of surprise.

“I did it! I got my armor!” she shouted, and then looked up to see the fist of the monster she had just punched heading straight for her head.

She did not dodge it in time.

The impact sent her into the wall behind her, and she groaned as she slid down to the floor.

“Yeah, okay I think that’s enough of the simulation,” Maggie said, closing her eyes again and causing the room to shift back to being a plain room.

Kat ran towards her and kneeled by her side.

“Oh my God, are you okay?” she asked as Anne’s armor receded.

“I’m fine,” Anne said with a smile and a wince. “The helmet really saved me there.” She then looked at her bloody hand. “That armor would’ve been really helpful earlier on though.”

“Well it’s not all bad,” Joan said as she made it over with the rest of the group. “A regular person would’ve broken every bone in their hand, and you’re just walking away with a really bad scrape.”

Maggie held out a hand to help Anne stand back up and said, “Was the simulation everything you’d hoped for?”

Once back on her feet Anne gave a dry laugh, “Oh, it was so much more. But maybe we should wait on the simulations a bit more. I think I could use some more training.”

“That’s good with me,” Maggie said with a grin. “We can pick it back up tomorrow. I think we’ve had enough excitement for the day.”

As they left, Joan pulled Anne aside to patch up her knuckles with a bandage. Once she got outside, she the five other girls outside.

“You all waited for me?” she asked, her eyebrows raised in surprise.

“Obviously,” Kat said. “I had to compliment your incredible fighting! Honestly, I was surprised that you even got one.”

“And a half,” Anna added. “If you count the monster you almost got at the end.”

Anne tilted her head and raised her eyes at Catherine, the last person she would’ve expected to wait behind.

Catherine just rolled her eyes. “I’m just waiting for Cathy.”

“And I just wanted to stick around and talk for a bit,” Cathy said with a small smile as she looked towards the ground.

Anne grinned. “Oh my God, we should totally do a team bonding dinner right now.”

“Absolutely not,” Catherine said at the same time that Kat said, “That would be so fun!”

Catherine and Kat looked at each other and then immediately looked away.

“I told my parents I wouldn’t stay out too late,” Catherine said, even sounding a little apologetic about it.

“I should also get home,” Jane said, smiling in apology. “I don’t want to leave my mom alone with Edward all night.”

Kat and Anne deflated a little, but Anne perked up almost immediately.

“Maybe a different day then,” Anne said with a smile and she looked at Kat, who smiled back.

The group headed back to their cars in the darkness, but the atmosphere felt different from the night before. They chatted amongst each other, beginning to feel like a real team, and when they said, “See you tomorrow,” to each other, it didn’t feel as forced.

\---

“They did pretty well today, didn’t they?” Maggie said to the others as they lounged around in the main room.

“I’m impressed, actually,” Joan said. “Their society today is so different, and yet they picked this up just as easily as the last Rangers. I mean, Catherine got her armor and weapon so quickly!”

“I told you she would get it first,” Maria said smugly.

“Yeah, but you always say that yellow is going to get it first,” Bessie complained. “I really thought Anna would. I mean, she’s such a natural leader.”

“Red is always a natural leader,” Maria said, rolling her eyes. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

“Yeah, but Catherine didn’t even want to be here,” Bessie countered.

“I kind of thought it would Anne,” Maggie interrupted. “I mean, she’s confident, she’s bright, and she was really excited about being a Ranger. I bet if we had just dropped them directly into combat, she would’ve gotten it first.”

“Oh, come on, Catherine summoned her _weapon_ already. If we had dropped them into combat, Catherine still would’ve gotten it first,” Maria argued. “Wanting to be a Ranger doesn’t mean anything. It’s understanding why you’re a Ranger that is important.”

After that, a brief silence ensued, until Maggie broke it next.

“It was kind of shocking seeing her weapon though,” Maggie said quietly. “I just … I don’t know, didn’t expect to ever see it again.” She shook her head. “I mean, that’s stupid. There are new Power Rangers, of course we’d see the weapons again.”

“No, I get it,” Maria whispered. “Especially with how sudden it was. I wasn’t prepared.”

Maggie reached out and grabbed Maria’s hand, who smiled back gratefully.

“Yeah, it’s kind of rude that she already got her weapon,” Bessie said. “I mean, now we can’t place bets on who’ll summon it first.”

Maria gave a small laugh at that.

“I mean, Anne will definitely get it second though,” Maggie said. “For sure.”

“What? No, it’ll be Anna. She was second to get her armor, she’ll be second to get her weapon,” Bessie said.

“Yes, we all know who you two will bet for, you two always bet for green and red, like how I always bet for yellow,” Maria said, rolling her eyes.

“I just think it’s so sad you never think about the other three Rangers,” Joan said with a shake of her head. “I mean, who knows. They might surprise you.”

\---

_Anna von Cleves created this group with Anne, Catherine, Catherine, Katherine, and Jane _

**Anna von Cleves**: Hey have you guys checked the news

**Jane Seymour**: No I just got home. Why?

**Catherine de Aragon**: You better have a good reason for making me unblock Anne

**Anne Boleyn**: omg so you DID block me???

**Anna von Cleves**: Look up the most recent news

\---

_ **Breaking News: Main street attacked by unidentified creatures** _

_Just this evening, the main street of the town has been destroyed by what can only be described as creatures made of rock. Witnesses say that the creatures formed from the concrete road beneath them and began destroying cars, buildings, signs, and whatever was nearest them, including civilians. At least a dozen people have been injured and are currently being treated in the hospital. _

_By the time law enforcement arrived, the creatures had already disassembled back into inanimate piles of concrete. The police are unable to make a statement currently, but the streets have been blocked off from civilian access. _

_Updates to be added as more information is revealed._

\---

**Anne Boleyn**: holy shit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are things happening? Plot?? Hopefully you are as excited as me to see things actually happen with the monsters.
> 
> Also, I don't know if you care about the Ladies in Waiting, but I made myself a little sad thinking about all of the generations of Power Rangers they had to live through. I did not intend to care about them much whoops.


	7. we knew a storm could come

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahaha guess who's back y'all!! I lowkey died for a while because school truly does suck, but I'm back!
> 
> I'm really sad bc I was going to see Six, but because Broadway got shut down for the coronavirus, I'll probably never get to see it rip :( At least the coronavirus has also shut down my school temporarily so I can work on this fic more lol

To say that everyone was a little bit tense was an extreme understatement. Hearing that demons were now openly attacking people wasn’t exactly the news they had wanted to hear after literally their first day of training.

**Jane Seymour**: Do you think the ladies in waiting know already?

**Anna von Cleves**: Probably not

**Catherine de Aragon**: If they did, they probably wouldn’t have had us leave

**Catherine Parr**: how could they know? they’re from the past they don’t know anything about technology. they can’t read the news

**Katherine Howard**: Should someone tell them? Should we do something?

**Anne Boleyn**: i mean what can we do it already happened

**Anna von Cleves**: I’ll call them. They said we could do it through our helmets

**Catherine de Aragon**: All of us who can summon our helmets should join

**Anne Boleyn**: rip

As Anna summoned her helmet and focused on contacting the Ladies in Waiting. The five others could feel their coins reacting, and summoned them as well, except for Kat and Cathy who waited with bated breath for more news.

\---

_Maria: Hey it’s us. What’s going on? Is everyone alright?_

_Anna: We’re fine, we just wanted to let you know about the news. Demons attacked Main Street tonight while we were training._

_Bessie: Shit, already? _

_Joan: Eldon is acting more forward than I would’ve expected …_

_Catherine: What does that mean?_

_Maggie: It means we’re going to have to move forward our plan. You six need to be trained already. Ugh, but only one of you has summoned a weapon, and two of you haven’t even gotten your armor._

_Joan: It’s ok, it’ll be fine. It shouldn’t take too much training to take out Eldon’s minions. Anne proved that tonight when she took one out with minimal training._

_Anne: Yeah, and I totally could have gotten more if I’d had my armor before._

_Maria: Just come prepared tomorrow for much more intense training. And under no circumstances should you try and fight any monsters yet._

_Anne: Wait seriously? You mean even if we see them sprouting out of the ground in front of us, you want us to just run? I thought you said they wouldn’t be too difficult to fight._

_Bessie: Yes, under normal circumstances, they would be easy. But two of your team members don’t even have armor, none of you are trained, and there will be much more than just a couple of them. You’ll be overwhelmed too easily, and if even one of you goes down, then Eldon will have won._

_Anna: Yes, we understand. We won’t go picking fights yet. I’ll make sure of it._

_Joan: Okay. Let us know if anything else comes up, and please stay safe._

\---

**Anne Boleyn**: this is such bullshit

**Catherine Parr**: what?

**Anne Boleyn**: how are we supposed to do nothing

**Anna von Cleves**: The ladies in waiting said that we shouldn’t fight any monsters and that we should just focus on training

**Jane Seymour**: I mean that’s not all that bad. Maybe no new attacks will happen tomorrow

**Anne Boleyn**: do u honestly believe that?

**Catherine Parr**: it makes sense though. we’re not prepared for combat at all. kat and i haven’t even gotten our armor yet

**Anna von Cleves**: Look why don’t we all just sleep on it and talk about it tomorrow

**Anne Boleyn**: im just saying youre not stopping me if something goes down

**Anna von Cleves**: We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it

**Anna von Cleves**: Just please it’s late and I’m tired

**Anne Boleyn**: fine

\---

Catherine felt uncertain about everything. A part of her had been hoping that maybe the whole demon thing would blow over, and they would be able to go back to their old lives.

The worst part was the helpless feeling that invaded her thoughts. Sure, she had been hesitant to become a Ranger, but now that she was one, she hated that she wasn’t strong enough to actually stop the monsters.

And though she hated to admit it, she actually agreed with Anne. If monsters started attacking people, Catherine wasn’t sure she’d be able to stop herself from jumping into combat and fighting. Regardless of whatever reservations she’d had about any of the other girls or about being a Ranger in general, Catherine knew she had to get past them if she wanted to help people.

She sighed and looked back at her phone to text Cathy.

**Catherine Parr**

**Catherine de Aragon**: Hey you ok?

**Catherine Parr**: i guess

**Catherine Parr**: you?

**Catherine de Aragon**: I’ll manage

**Catherine de Aragon**: Did you want to talk about it?

**Catherine Parr**: all of this sucks

**Catherine Parr**: and the worst part is i still have my stupid spanish and apush hw to do

**Catherine Parr**: even though there are freaking monsters that could attack us at any minute

**Catherine de Aragon**: Yeah I get that. I’m sorry

**Catherine de Aragon**: Pero puedo ayudarte con tu tarea de español, si lo necesitas

**Catherine Parr**: what if you just did it for me though lol?

**Catherine de Aragon**: …

**Catherine Parr**: jk it’s wrong i know

**Catherine de Aragon**: Tbh I would consider doing it if you promised to go to bed early

**Catherine Parr**: you know i don’t make promises i can’t keep

**Catherine de Aragon**: Cathy

**Catherine Parr**: :))

**Catherine de Aragon**: :/

**Catherine Parr**: night catalina love you <3

**Catherine de Aragon**: Sigh

**Catherine de Aragon**: Please don’t sleep too late

**Catherine de Aragon**: I love you too

\---

**Anna ** **😊**

**Anna ****😊**: You doing alright?

**Kat**: Yeah

**Anna ****😊**: Wanna call?

**Kat**: No I’m ok

**Kat**: Just kinda scared

**Kat**: But it’s no big deal

**Anna ****😊**: You sure?

**Anna ****😊**: I can come over if you want

**Kat**: You’ll get in trouble with your parents tho

**Anna ****😊**: That doesn’t matter

**Kat**: And I thought you’re already in trouble with them

**Anna ****😊**: I literally don’t give two shits what my parents think

**Kat**: I do if it means they’ll be mad at you

**Anna ****😊**: I’m coming over

**Anna ****😊**: Ok?

**Kat**: Ok

\---

“Hey,” Anna whispered to avoid startling Kat as she slid open the window to her room.

Kat snapped out of whatever trance she was in as she noticed Anna enter. She was curled on up on her bed, knees drawn up to her chest, and she looked very out of it.

“Hi,” Kat whispered back.

Anna made her way in and closed the window behind her, approaching the side of Kat’s bed.

“Can I?” she asked, gesturing to the spot beside Kat, only sitting down when Kat nodded her head. As she sat down, Kat instantly moved towards her, leaning on Anna and turning her head into the crook of Anna’s neck. Anna reacted by wrapping her arm around Kat and pulling her closer.

Kat then took a shaky breath. “I hate this,” she whispered sharply. She hated all of it. She hated the demon attacks, she hated being a Power Ranger, she hated being a Power Ranger and _still_ being so powerless. She hated feeling so afraid.

Anna took a deep breath and squeezed Kat tighter. “I know. It’s gonna be ok. We’ll get through this.”

\---

At school, the atmosphere was more somber than usual. The hallways were not silent by any means, as all the teens chatted amongst themselves, but overall it was clear that people were a little shaken.

The six Rangers were clearly affected too. It was obvious in the way that Catherine didn’t automatically glare at Anne when their eyes briefly met before class, and Anne barely had the energy to joke around when she talked with Jane.

She even got serious enough to ask Jane, “You’re okay though, right?”

Jane nodded with a smile that didn’t hide the worry in her eyes. Edward and her mom had both been at home when the attack happened, but what if they hadn’t been? Jane wouldn’t have even learned about it until she got home. It was the idea that something could’ve happened and she wouldn’t have even known that terrified her.

Cathy almost instantly fell asleep in her first period, only waking up when Anna nudged her awake.

“Late night?” Anna asked sympathetically.

“You have no idea,” Cathy mumbled, struggling to wake up to get to their next class.

When Cathy got to third period, Catherine didn’t even bother trying to keep her awake, letting the poor girl rest for their next two classes.

By the time lunch rolled around, nobody’s mood had improved.

Jane and Anna walked over to join Kat, who was already seated at the table and staring blankly at her lunch. As they sat down, she looked up and gave a smile that looked more like a grimace.

“So I’m assuming everyone’s day has been going poorly?” Jane said with a sigh.

“Yeah, and not even just for us,” Anna said. “It feels like the whole school has been spooked. It’s the only thing anyone’s talking about.”

“And they don’t even know the half of it,” Kat said softly. “To them it just _feels_ like the world is ending, but like, the world _is_ actually ending.”

“Not if we have anything to do with it,” Anna said, giving Kat a reassuring smile as she looked up.

Out of the corner of their eye, they noticed Catherine and Cathy approaching. Cathy looked kind of shy, while Catherine had a very neutral face on. To anyone else, it might look like a glare, but by this point they had all gotten used to seeing it, and it was less intimidating than it was before.

“Mind if we join?” Catherine asked, glancing at Cathy who just gave a bright smile back.

The three girls looked at each other, and Anna said, “Not at all.”

As Catherine and Cathy seated themselves, Anna continued, “We were just discussing how the world isn’t ending, and everything is going to be fine.”

At that Catherine cracked a small smile.

“Sounds about right,” Cathy said. “Did you hear the news update? Apparently, there were no fatal casualties. Just a lot of injuries and damaged property. So at least there’s some good news.”

There’s was a brief silence, until Catherine spoke up. “Speaking of good news,” she said a little awkwardly as she looked at Cathy, “did Cathy tell you what happened last night?”

“Oh, I almost forgot about that!” Cathy said.

“How in the world could you forget?” Catherine asked, looking at Cathy with disbelief.

“I guess I was so tired, it just slipped my mind,” Cathy said, looking down at the table in embarrassment. She then looked up to see three confused and curious faces. “I finally summoned my armor last night.”

“Seriously?” Anna said, a grin starting to form on her face.

“Yeah,” Catherine said, shaking her head. “I woke up to see that she’d sent me a text at 4 AM to say she’d finally got it.”

“Congrats! That’s incredible,” Jane said, also smiling brightly.

The only one at the table who didn’t seem as enthused was Kat, who looked like she was trying to smile but failing quite miserably. Anna seemed to notice, and she nudged Kat with her shoulder.

“Hey, you’ll get it soon,” she said. She knew that Kat was still upset about not having her armor. With the situation getting increasingly dangerous, Kat was feeling more insecure and worried about it.

“Ugh, I know it’s just annoying,” Kat said, dropping the smile and leaning her head on her hand. “I just don’t get it.”

“I can relate,” Cathy said with a sympathetic smile. “I mean, I didn’t really get it until last night, and even now I can’t fully explain it. It’s like what everyone else said. You sort of just feel it.”

Everyone else at the table nodded while Kat just groaned and placed her head on the table. She felt Anna’s hand rest comfortingly on her shoulder and peeked out to pout.

On her other side, she suddenly heard Jane say, “Anne!” and she whipped her head up to look.

Standing awkwardly next to the table was Anne, who had one arm across her body holding her other arm in an almost defensive stance.

“Didn’t realize we were having a party,” Anne joked, though she looked kind of nervous, every now and then glancing around the cafeteria.

“We would’ve invited you, but we didn’t know if you’d show up,” Anna said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, well. Figured I might as well grace you all with my presence, since I’m sure you all missed me,” Anne said as she started to grin.

Everyone at the table smiled except for Catherine, who rolled her eyes. Still, Anne took it as a win that Catherine wasn’t glaring at her. And on the other side of the table, Kat looked happier than she had the entire day. She and Jane scooted apart to fit Anne between them.

“You didn’t bring lunch?” Jane asked with a frown.

“Oh, uh, I already ate it outside,” Anne said, and she shrugged casually as she took a seat.

Jane gave a suspicious “Hm,” but otherwise left it at that as she resolved to save some of her lunch to give Anne after school.

Anne then asked, “So what’s got our Kat looking so glum?”

“You mean other than the incident last night?” Kat said, and Anne winced at that. Kat grimaced and said, “Everyone’s gotten their armor except me.”

Anne frowned in confusion before it dawned on her. She looked over to Cathy with a surprised face and said, “Wait, you got it? When? I mean, that’s awesome!”

Cathy blushed, embarrassed to once again have the attention on her “I got it last night. I couldn’t really sleep, so I decided to just practice it.”

“Maybe I should’ve stayed up to practice it too,” Kat said, as she leaned her head on her hand. Instantly, Anna started to shake her head in disapproval.

“Absolutely not. I would’ve knocked you out myself if you’d tried to.”

“See that’s what I should’ve done last night to you,” Catherine said with a rueful smile, bumping Cathy’s arm. “Then you’d finally get sleep for once in your life.”

“Hey,” Cathy said with a frown, “don’t act like I’m the only one with bad sleep hygiene. We’re in high school. Nobody gets any sleep.”

“I don’t think that’s true,” Jane said. “I get a good amount of sleep. At least, when Edward isn’t keeping us up with his crying …”

“Yeah, we usually get plenty of sleep too,” Anna said, glancing at Kat. “I mean, we kind of have to. Trying to do run around a soccer field for hours without sleep is … not a good idea. Same goes for doing flips in the air.”

Cathy was looking more and more chastised by the minute while Catherine was looking more and more smug, so of course Anne had to butt in with, “I don’t get any sleep.” She looked at Cathy and grinned. “Solidarity in sleep deprivation.”

Cathy smiled at Anne while Catherine scowled at her. “I wouldn’t consider being in solidarity with you a positive thing.”

Before Anne could make any retort, Jane interjected, “I think the point is, Kat, that losing sleep over this would be a bad idea.”

Kat sighed. “Sure, but it’d still be nice to have my armor already.”

“Who needs armor anyway?” Anne said, puffing out her chest. “I took down one of those monsters without it.”

“Yeah, and remember what happened to your fist?” Anna said, raising an eyebrow.

“It wasn’t _that_ bad,” Anne said, and she held up her fist. “See?” It was already healing nicely, the wound already gone. All that was left was some bruising, which honestly didn’t even look that bad, considering she had punched solid rock.

“It sounded pretty bad last night when you were shouting in pain,” Jane said with an amused look.

Anne waved her hand and said, “Oh please, it was nothing I couldn’t handle. You know what they say: ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’”

“Please do not try to learn from her,” Anna leaned over and said to Kat, who was already shaking her head in laughter.

“Don’t worry. I’m not as bad as her,” she said with a grin.

Anne had a look of mock hurt on her face as she dramatically placed her hand over her chest. “Kat! Are you saying you don’t look up to me as a source of inspiration?”

“No, because unlike you, she has common sense,” Catherine said, and Anne looked over to see Catherine pointedly looking away. Next to her, Cathy looked like she was trying to hide a laugh but was failing quite miserably. Jane had a hand over her mouth, while Anna and Kat didn’t even try to hide their snorts and giggles. Even Anne, with her face scrunched up in annoyance, couldn’t help the small smile that broke through.

For the first time that day, it really did feel like everything would be ok.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're finally becoming friends! It only took a major disaster for it to happen <3


	8. i won't back down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes I regret what I previously wrote, but I guess the last 7 chapters have already happened so oh well lol. If you ever read something and question why I wrote it, do not worry. I also questioned why I wrote it and posted it anyway 🙂 Sometimes I write things that don't make sense 🙂 As a treat 🙂

By the time the lunch bell rang, Catherine was actually rather enjoying herself. Though she’d had her doubts, she was starting to agree with Cathy about the others. Catherine still had her reservations against Anne, but at the very least, they didn’t seem like terrible people despite what all of the rumors that went around school seemed to suggest.

Kat and Anna even waited for her to pack up her lunch so they could all head to Choir together. Catherine probably shouldn’t have been as surprised as she was at that gesture, but she couldn’t help it. Other than Cathy, the last time anyone had waited for her was when she was with Henry, and after her fall from grace, she quickly learned that everyone had really been waiting for Henry, not her.

Besides, she was pretty sure Kat hated her, so seeing her wait was doubly surprising. In the past few days, she had seen how close Kat and Anne were, so it made sense to Catherine that Kat might not like her so much, and yet here she was walking with her to class.

It was a small gesture, but Catherine couldn’t help the little swell in her heart.

When they reached choir room, they found their teacher replaced with a substitute who explained that their conductor was taking a couple days of sick leave due to being caught in the demon attack the other night. Similar things had happened in other classes around campus, or so Catherine had heard from other students’ gossiping.

The class was instructed to separate into sectionals. However, this quickly fell apart as everyone refused to focus on the pieces they were meant to be practicing. Instead, they continued to talk about the incident last night. Already, students were creating conspiracy theories about what the demons were.

And so Catherine, Anna, and Kat found themselves sitting in their own group, continuing their conversation from lunch.

“We might not be the best people to ask,” Catherine said with a shrug. “I mean, we got our armor immediately. It’d probably be easier for you to ask Cathy or … Anne.” Her nose wrinkled briefly as she said Anne’s name.

“But even Cathy said she couldn’t explain it,” Kat said, lightly thumping her head against the wall behind her.

“It is pretty impossible to explain, in her defense,” Anna said.

“But, like, what were you thinking of? You must have been thinking of something,” Kat said, lifting her head up and leaning forward in desperation.

“I already told you,” Anna said with a shake of her head. “I was thinking of what it meant to be a Power Ranger.”

“Anna,” Kat whined, giving Anna wide, puppy-dog eyes.

Anna sighed and closed her eyes, her forehead wrinkling in concentration. She hadn’t been thinking of much. She had been thinking about the moment that she and Kat had found the monsters attacking the others, and then suddenly the armor had come to her.

“I guess I thought about wanting, or needing, to protect.” Her frown started to grow the more she thought about it. “Like I think of what happened last night and I think … I can’t let that happen again.”

Suddenly red started forming, coming out of Anna’s chest, and Kat jumped forward, placing her hands on Anna’s shoulders. Catherine sat up and moved forward in an attempt to cover Anna from other people’s sights.

“Anna, not here,” Kat whispered sharply under her breath.

Anna suddenly opened her eyes and the armor went away.

“Sorry,” she whispered back. “I got a little carried away.”

“No kidding,” Catherine muttered under her breath as she sat back, looking around to see if anyone else noticed.

Kat sat back with a thoughtful look on her face. “You know, Jane said something similar yesterday, didn’t she? When she got her armor. Something about her son and her mom. Maybe she thought about protecting them, and that’s how she got her armor,” Kat thought out loud.

“I don’t think that’s the solution for everyone,” Catherine said. “I mean, I highly doubt that’s what Anne was thinking when she got her armor. And if it were as simple as that, I think Cathy would’ve figured it out. She has been complaining nonstop about her inability to explain how she summoned her armor.”

“And what about you?” Kat asked.

Catherine turned to look at her with a frown. “What?”

“I mean, what were you thinking of when you got your armor? You didn’t tell us the other night. Is it different from what Anna said?”

Catherine looked away, biting her lip as she thought. She had been thinking of a lot of things when she got her armor. She’d thought about the demons and how many must have died because of them. She’d thought about how many people were _going_ to get hurt and how the six of them were suddenly responsible for saving everyone, even though they were just kids with their own lives ahead of them. And how was any of that fair? It wasn’t. It was all so _unfair_, and that made her so—

“I think I just felt angry,” Catherine said. She looked back at Kat and Anna. “I was so angry at the whole situation, and I wanted to do something about it. And then my armor and weapon came out.”

Kat and Anna stared back for a bit, until Anna spoke up, “Soo, it’s kinda similar to me. I mean, I felt kind of upset too.”

“Actually, it sounds more like what Anne was probably feeling,” Kat said, giggling when Catherine scowled at the comment. “I mean, she must have been feeling pretty angry when she was fighting those monster simulations. So angry, that she just wanted to do something about it.”

Catherine rolled her eyes but didn’t comment on it anymore.

“Anyway, does any of this help you get closer to finding your armor?” Anna asked Kat.

“Maybe. I don’t know,” Kat sighed. “Like, I’m angry too, and I _do_ want to help protect people, but like, I don’t get how you guys get armor from that.”

“I think the point is that it’s _supposed_ to be different for you,” Anna said, patting the dejected looking Kat on the head.

“Honestly Kat, I wouldn’t worry about it,” Catherine said, giving her a small smile. “You’ll get it when the time is right.”

Kat pouted at first but eventually sighed in agreement. She scooted closer to Anna and put her head on Anna’s shoulder in a sort of display of defeat.

\---

At the end of the day, Kat grabbed her things to go stand next to Cathy’s desk. She had decided that Anna was right, and her fears of Cathy and Catherine were mostly unfounded.

At seeing her approach, Cathy gave her a shy smile while placing her things in her backpack, which Kat returned with a grin.

“Hey Cathy,” she said, before pausing and asking, “I can call you Cathy right? I kinda assumed since, like, everyone else calls you that, but you go by Catherine in class, don’t you …”

Cathy gave a small huff in laughter. “Yeah, you can call me Cathy. I just … don’t really like people I don’t know calling me that. But friends are ok.”

Kat grinned even wider at hearing Cathy call them “friends” and said, “Okay. So anyways, random question but—”

“You want to know how I got my armor, right?” Cathy said with a bit of a smirk. “I already said, I kind of just felt it.”

“Yeah, that’s what everyone says, but you’re the only one who’s gotten it by just, like, thinking hard enough about it. So what were you thinking about when it finally happened?” At this point, Kat was basically leaning over Cathy, who stood up to back away a little.

Cathy laughed a little and held up her hands. “Ok, I think that maybe you need to relax a little bit.”

Kat crossed her arms and hmphed. “Easy for you to say, now that you’ve got your armor.”

Cathy sighed and gave Kat a sympathetic smile as she slung her backpack over her shoulder. “Fair enough. Okay,” she said, and twisted her mouth as she thought back to last night.

She had been indeed been thinking hard for a long time last night. She’d thought about the Rangers that had come before them, and the generations that the Ladies in Waiting must have lived through. She’d thought about how it must have felt for them, to have had a happy ending and then wake up to hear it wasn’t true. She’d thought about the attack on Main Street and imagined something similar happening again and being unable to stop it. She had imagined Catherine getting hurt trying to protect her. She had imagined the others getting hurt while she could only watch.

Cathy took a deep breath and looked back at Kat before saying, “I just felt so powerless, and I was so tired of it. I was so tired of feeling powerless that I guess I decided I just didn’t want to be powerless anymore. And then the armor came.”

Kat’s forehead creased and she nodded.

“Yeah I get that,” she said softly. She and Cathy locked eyes, a moment of understanding coming between them, before Kat looked away. She was tired of feeling weak too, but she didn’t think that was going to get her armor. She let out a loud groan and finally said, “I get all of it except the armor part, ugh. Whatever, I’ll just do what everyone’s been telling me and just _wait_ for it come, I guess.”

“That’s more like it. Don’t worry, it’ll come when you need it. I’m sure of it,” Cathy said with a warm smile. At that moment, her phone buzzed, and she pulled it out of her pocket to check it. “Ah, and that would be Catherine asking me where I am. I should probably head over there.”

“Yeah, and I should get to practice,” Kat agreed. “I’ll see you later tonight.”

“See you,” Cathy said with a wave, and the two headed off into separate directions.

When Cathy saw Catherine waiting at the entrance of the student parking lot, she quickened her pace, jogging to meet up with her.

“Sorry,” she said to Catherine, who looked more curious than annoyed. “I was talking to Kat for a bit about the armor thing.”

Understanding dawned on Catherine’s face. She shook her head. “I see she still hasn’t dropped it then?”

“I don’t blame her,” Cathy said, a small frown appearing on her face. “Up until last night, I felt the same way. So much so that I stayed up almost the whole night.”

“Yeah, and I’m still not okay with that,” Catherine said, pointing an accusatory finger at Cathy with a glare. Cathy had the decency to look at least a little sorry about it, and Catherine dropped her finger with a sigh. “Whatever, as long as you promise not to do it again.”

Cathy said, “I promise I’ll _try_.”

With a final shake of her head, Catherine turned to head towards her car.

“Anyways,” Cathy said, walking quickly to reach Catherine’s side, “I was wondering if we could actually head to the Tower straight away? Joan said we could talk more about how science and magic work together. Also, I wanted to see if there was a way for them to get news directly, so they can always be up to date.”

“You are such a nerd,” Catherine said with a fond smile.

“Me?” Cathy said, looking at Catherine in shock. “You’re the one who’s always studying so much.”

“Yeah, but I don’t get excited over it,” Catherine said with a roll of her eyes. “Yes, we can go early. I wanted to get some training in, anyhow.”

“Now who’s the nerd,” Cathy whispered to Catherine teasingly before walking around to the other side of Catherine’s car. They exited the parking lot and were driving for a short while before Cathy noticed a figure walking on the sidewalk ahead of them.

“Hey, is that Anne?” Cathy asked, pointing her out to Catherine.

Catherine sighed. “You’re gonna suggest we offer her a ride, aren’t you?”

“I mean, it is the nice thing to do,” Cathy said, and when Catherine didn’t look very convinced, she added, “Some might even say that it’s the _right_ thing to do.”

Catherine turned and gave Cathy an unimpressed look, but she did slow down and pull over next to Anne, who looked surprised at the sight of the two.

Cathy rolled down her window and said, “Hey Anne. Need a ride?”

Anne looked past Cathy to see a Catherine who was clearly trying to ignore Anne’s existence.

“I don’t know,” she said, looking back at Cathy. “This isn’t some sort of kidnapping plot, after which I disappear forever, is it?” Anne raised an eyebrow and smirked.

“As far as I know, it isn’t,” Cathy said, looking back over her shoulder to see Catherine roll her eyes. She then leaned out the window further and whispered, “but knowing her, you can never tell.”

Anne grinned at that. “You headed to the Tower?” she asked, and when Cathy nodded, she said, “I’ll take my chances then.”

She hopped into the back seat of the car, catching Catherine’s eyes briefly in the rearview mirror, before Catherine looked back towards the road and resumed driving.

“Okay, but real talk, we have _got_ to call that place something other than the Tower. It’s not even a tower,” Anne said.

“I dunno it’s kind of cute. I think it’s nostalgic for the Ladies in Waiting or something. Besides, I think they might kill us if we did that,” Cathy said, “or revoke our Power Ranger status at the very least.”

“True, true. And then I wouldn’t get to beat up monsters …” Anne said, trailing off as she looked out the window. She then turned her head back to Cathy. “What are you two heading there for anyway? I didn’t see you heading there this early the other day.”

“I wanted to talk to Joan about magic and technology, and Catherine wanted to get some extra training in.”

“Oh? How convenient,” Anne said, looking towards Catherine in the rearview mirror. “I was going to train as well. You know what they say: ‘Great minds think alike.’”

Catherine glared at Anne’s reflection. “Thanks, but I’d hardly call your mind great.”

“Well, great minds think alike, but fools seldom differ. You could always choose to be a fool with me,” Anne said, grinning at Catherine’s increasingly annoyed reflection.

“Next time, I swear I’ll just let you walk the whole way,” Catherine muttered under her breath, but her scowl lessened at the sound of Cathy’s muffled laughs.

\---

Once they reached the Tower, Cathy stayed in the main room, discussing how the magic kept the whole place running with Joan and how it could possibly connect to a satellite. Catherine and Anne continued on to the simulation room to get some extra practice with the other Ladies in Waiting.

“Alright then!” Maggie said with a clap of her hands. “Since you two were so eager to continue your training, how about we try out this simulation room some more.” As she spoke, the room shifted to look like the same arena they saw the other day.

“Whoah, hold up,” Anne said, raising her hands defensively, “I thought you said we’d go back to the other, boring training after my spectacular failure the other night.”

“Yeah, but that was before Eldon started attacking so aggressively,” Bessie said, and then she smirked. “We’ve decided to start much more … intense training.”

“Besides, weren’t you the one who wanted to use the simulation room more?” Maria asked with a raised eyebrow.

Anne groaned and facepalmed. “Fuck.”

At that Maggie, summoned up five rock monsters before them as she spoke, “Well, at least now you have someone else watching your back.”

“Yeah, someone who has her weapon already,” Catherine said smugly as she summoned her armor, her sword appearing along with it.

“Great. I feel so much better now,” Anne said dryly, reluctantly summoning her own armor.

They both got into the fighting stances that they had been taught the other day. The Ladies in Waiting took a brief moment to correct them, before announcing the start of the battle as the monsters charged forward.

Anne managed to take one down before another monster punched her straight in the gut, knocking her onto the ground. Catherine performed the same, managing to slice through one before the one next to it whacked her sword out of her hand and hit her in the side. She flew through the air a bit, sliding towards the wall.

Maggie snapped her fingers, and the simulation reset with the five monsters back in their original positions.

“You’re all too focused on taking down one enemy, you forget the others around you,” Maggie said amidst the two girls’ groans.

“Well, yeah, isn’t that how fighting works? You can’t exactly focus on two targets at once.” Anne said, shoving herself up. Catherine moved similarly, leaning on the wall as she stood up.

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean you completely ignore all the other opponents,” Maria said. “You need to be aware of your surroundings, even as you focus on one opponent.”

“Don’t forget that you have the defensive maneuvers that we taught you yesterday,” Bessie noted. “These monsters are really strong, which means you should try to dodge their attacks more, and if you use a blocking maneuver, you need to make sure your stance is correct so you can take the impact. Lower to the ground with your weight more towards the front.” As she spoke, Bessie demonstrated how the stance was meant to look.

“Is this really the best way for us to learn?” Catherine asked as she walked back towards where Anne stood and picked up the sword that had fallen to the ground.

“Not really,” Maggie shrugged, “but it is the _fastest_ way for you to learn, and that’s really what we’re concerned with at the moment. Now come on. Into your stances.”

The two girls looked at each other through their helmets, unable to see the other’s expression but feeling the shared exasperation. Then they entered their stances and the simulation began again.

\---

“It’s only five of them!” Anne shouted in frustration, losing her armor as she turned away from the simulation. “Why can’t we take them down?”

Catherine didn’t say anything, but she lost her armor and weaponry as well. She crossed her arms and looked between the pacing Anne and the Ladies in Waiting.

“I mean, you _are_ making progress,” Maria said, looking towards Anne. “You managed to take out three of them, which is honestly not that bad.”

“The problem is that once you’re in the heat of the battle, you forget everything we taught you about defensive stances and maneuvers,” Maggie said. “You’re hyped on adrenaline and you panic. That’s when everything starts to go wrong.”

“Also, you seem to forget that you have a teammate right beside you,” Bessie pointed out, causing Anne and Catherine to glance at each other. Catherine’s nose instinctively wrinkled as she looked back towards Bessie.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Catherine asked.

“If there were only four monsters, I’m sure it’d be much easier for you. That would just be two enemies for each of you to take care of. But the extra monster makes it almost impossible for whichever one of you it decides to target. That’s three against one, which you’re not really capable of right now,” Bessie explained. “If you were able to pay attention to who it targets and cover for them, you might find yourselves getting hit less often.”

“In other words, maybe try working together?” Maggie said.

Anne looked back at Catherine’s grimacing face and groaned. “So basically, you’re saying we’re hopeless.”

“Yeah, basically,” Maria said with a wry smile, looking over at Maggie.

Suddenly, Catherine and Anne felt their Coins give almost a shock. Instantly, they knew that Anna must be calling through her helmet. Any animosity between the two of them instantly dropped as they looked at each other before summoning their armor.

_“Anna,” _Catherine asked, as she moved with the others into the main room, _“what’s going on?_

Through their helmets, they could hear Anna whispering, _“There’s an attack. Here, at the school. Apparently they started appearing in the football field, but now they’re everywhere.”_

_“The football field? Where’s Kat? Is she alright?” _Jane asked hurriedly, having joined at just the right moment.

_“Yes, I found Kat and we’re hiding under the bleachers, but there’s no way I can take on these many monsters by myself.”_

_“There’s no way that _any_ of you can take on that many, even as a team,” _Bessie cut in. She and the other Ladies in Waiting stood around the table in the center of the room._ “You’re not prepared. You don’t even have weapons!”_

Anne turned to look at Bessie, and though her helmet was on, it was clear she was angry. _“No way. You’re not suggesting we just leave Anna and Kat there.”_

_“The best that they can do is try and get out of there themselves,” _Joan said, trying to calm Anne down.

_“And what about all of the other students? Those are our classmates,” _Anne continued, her voice sounding more urgent.

_“If you go, you will lose to Eldon, and you _can not _lose,” _Maggie said sternly. _“I know it’s hard, but sometimes you have to lose the battle to win the war.”_

_“No,” _Catherine suddenly spoke, and all the heads in the room turned to her in surprise._ “I refuse to believe that our classmates are just … acceptable losses. I can’t just sit idly by.” _Catherine looked to Anne and gave her a short nod.

_“You don’t understand,” _Maria said, sounding incredibly irritated. _“You can’t—”_

_“No, _you _don’t understand,” _Cathy said, and then she was the one with all of the attention. _“Maybe you’ve seen enough death that now it means nothing to you, but it doesn’t make any of these lives meaningless. We got lucky that no one died last night, and I’m not willing to take that risk again. This may be a war for you, but we are _not_ your soldiers, and I refuse to win a war that requires innocent people to die.”_

After a moment of silence, Anne whistled and said, _“Wow. That is way more well-spoken than I was gonna go for. I was just gonna say, ‘Fuck this,’ or something and storm out.”_

Catherine shook her head and sighed. _“C’mon, let’s just go. Anna, Kat, we’re on our way. We’ll let you know when we’re in range of the school,” _Catherine said as she walked out with Cathy and Anne close behind her, the Ladies in Waiting powerless to stop them.

_“I’m on my way as well,” _Jane said. _“Please stay safe.”_

_“We’ll try, but hurry,” _Anna said, _“I don’t know how long until they turn their attention from the field to the bleachers.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen, I know this is going so slowly I'm so sorry. My brain is really trying to make plot happen I promise, but I keep writing random conversations and also I write really slowly. Next chapter I swear SOMETHING will happen other than the six of them talking about their feelings or whatever.


	9. release the bitches

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo boy for someone who decided to write a Power Rangers AU, I have realized that I Do Not like writing action lmao.
> 
> EDIT: bc I forgot to add trigger warnings whoops
> 
> tw: violence

Anna felt the others drop out from the call, presumably as they retracted their armor and helmets to hurry to the school. She turned to face Kat who sat next to her, knees clutched to her chest as she stared at Anna in fear.

“They said they’re on their way,” Anna said, trying to sound more calm and assured than she currently felt. “We just need to hold out for a few minutes longer.”

Kat gave a slight nod, though the worried look never left her face. In the distance, they could hear the sirens of police cars and the growling of monsters.

Anna looked through the slits in the bleachers, watching the creatures cause damage and chaos to the field. Chunks of the grass were ripped up, and some of the nearby bleachers were already being wrecked by monsters who had grown bored of attacking a now empty field. Police had arrived, but they were clearly struggling to deal with the monsters. Their attempts to shoot the monsters had little success.

Kat turned to look as well, wincing as she noticed a monster crushing the bleachers a few yards away them.

“I don’t think we have a few minutes,” Kat whispered with a shaky breath, and Anna knew that Kat was right. The group of monsters that had moved towards the bleachers were getting closer and closer to their position, ripping up and smashing the seats with ease.

Finally, one monster pulled up the bleachers directly next to them, roaring as soon as it saw them and gaining its fellow monsters’ attention.

“Run,” Anna said, pulling Kat to her feet and pushing her forward before following right behind. She glanced over her shoulder at the group of four monsters following and knew that they wouldn’t be able to outrun them. Gritting her teeth, she slowed to a stop and turned around to face them.

Noticing her absence, Kat turned around and stopped as well, shouting out, “Anna!”

“Just keep running Kat! I’ll hold them off,” Anna said, getting into a defensive stance as the monsters neared.

She managed dodge the first couple of swipes, landing in a hit of her own before jumping back to dodge the next barrage of blows. She then swung out her leg and brought down the previously injured monster with powerful kick as it dissolved into dirt and rocks. She brought her arms up in an attempt to block the next attacks of the rest of the monsters, but the strength of their hits pushed her back too much, and she couldn’t hold her stance any longer as they knocked her over.

She lay on the ground as they approached her, but before they could land any more blows on her, a pink arrow shot out, striking one of the monsters in its leg, causing it to fall over as well. The other monsters switched their attention to the new attacker, and Anne looked back to see Kat in pink armor, wielding a pink bow.

She didn’t have much time to stare in awe though as she hurried to stand up, taking advantage of the monsters’ shock. As the injured monster attempted to stand up again, she gave it a final punch to the face, and it crumbled to nothing.

With two monsters left, it was much more manageable. Kat fired arrows that magically appeared as she pulled the bowstring back. Two arrows managed to hit, one in the monster’s shoulder and one in its torso, while Anna took down the other with a combination of punches and high kicks.

They breathed heavily as they stared at the remains, and Anna looked over at Kat. She couldn’t see Kat’s expression, through the helmet, but once Kat spoke, her emotions were clear in her voice.

“_I did it. I got my armor. I got my _weapon_!_” Kat said, almost bouncing on her feet in glee.

“_Told you that all you had to do was wait,_” Anna said with a grin. “_Now that you know what it’s like, what were you feeling when you got them?_”

Kat huffed out a laugh. “_A lot of fear. I just … couldn’t watch you get hurt._”

Anna pulled Kat into a hug, and said, “_I’m so lucky to have you to watch my back._”

Then, they both felt Jane connect through her helmet.

“_I just arrived at the school, are you two still alright?_”

“_Oh yeah, we’re better than alright_,” Anna said. “_Meet up with us behind the bleachers. I’m so ready to wreck some shit up.”_

“_Okay. Quick question though, uh, how do I get past the police line?_” Jane asked nervously.

“_Can’t you just walk past them? I mean, they can’t stop you, right? The suits are probably bulletproof,_” Kat asked.

“_Probably?_” Jane asked sounding even more unsure than before.

“_I don’t know what ‘bullets’ are,_” Joan cut in, “_but your armor should be impenetrable by anything nonmagical._”

Jane sighed, “_If you say so,” _and she walked out from behind the corner of the building and walked towards the school.

An officer noticed her approaching and turned his gun onto her. “Hold it right there! Don’t come any closer!”

Jane held up her hands, but she didn’t stop moving. “It’s okay, I’m here to help.”

“I said stop moving!” The officer said, and when Jane continued, he fired a bullet at her. Jane flinched and stopped, but when she didn’t feel anything, she released the breath she realized she’d been holding and continued. The officer fired couple more bullet, before realizing it wasn’t doing any good.

He holstered his gun and tried block her with his body. With her strength though, he was no match. She easily pushed him aside and walked past him.

“Sorry,” she said, sounding genuinely apologetic, and she passed the police line without any other trouble, as the other officers simply watched in shock.

Once she was inside the school, she quickly found Anna and Kat.

“_Kat! Your armor!_” Jane shouted.

“_And weapon,_” she said proudly, holding up the bow in her hand.

“_Now I get why Anna sounded so confident,_” Jane said. “_I’m so happy for you!_”

“_Yeah, and now it’s time we help out the others. I’m pretty sure my teammates are still in the school,_” Kat said.

“_I ran off before I saw where any of my teammates went,_” Anna added, “_but I’m pretty sure they’re still on campus too._”

“_Do you know where any of your teammates might have gone?_” Jane asked.

There was a pause, until Kat said, “_Maybe the locker rooms? It’s the next closest place to the football field than bleachers._”

“_The soccer team might have headed towards the gym. Our soccer field is pretty close to it, and it probably seemed safer than the outdoors,_” Anna added. “_Though before doing anything, perhaps we should wait for the others._”

Just as she was speaking, they could feel the other three Rangers come in on their helmets.

“_You rang?_” Anne said, and Anna could practically hear her grin.

“_Finally,_” Anna said with relief. “_What took you so long?_”

“_Well, you never realize how far the forest is from the school until you’re speeding to get here,_” Catherine said drily. “_How are you doing?_”

“_We’re doing okay,_” Kat said. “_We were just saying how we’re gonna kick those monsters’ butts._”

“_Kat! You got your armor!_” Cathy shouted.

“_She got more than that,_” Jane said. “_She also got her weapon. It’s a bow._”

“_Yeah, and it saved my ass,_” Anna added. “_But as much as I want to celebrate Kat’s new weapon, how about you three hurry up and get into the school? There are monsters attacking the school as we speak.”_

The three Rangers outside of the school agreed, moving through the police line with no more resistance.

“_You three take the locker room,_” Anna said. “_We think some of the cheerleaders and/or football players may be hiding in there._ _We’ll take the gym to look for the soccer team._”

Everyone gave a quick “_Got it_” into their helmets as they raced to stop the monsters.

\---

Catherine, Cathy and Anne raced onto the football field to see it covered in monsters that looked up as they approached.

Anne swallowed hard at the sight of them on the torn-up field. “_I don’t think we’ll be hosting football games any time soon.”_

“_Is now really the time, Anne?_” Catherine hissed, getting into her fighting stance and summoning her sword. The other two quickly followed suit.

“_Can we take on this many?_” Cathy asked nervously.

“_Yes. We just need to work together, okay? Remember what the Ladies in Waiting said?_” Catherine said.

“_Yeah, I’m pretty sure they said we’re doomed,_” Anne groaned. Before Catherine could respond though, the monsters were on them.

With three of them working together, they fared much better than in their simulation. Instead of five against two, this time it was six against three.

Catherine charged forward a bit to attract the attention of most of the monsters, this time trying to remember defensive strategies. She slashed forward and held up her blade and arm in an attempt to block the blows that would follow. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a monster move to strike her defenseless side. Then at the last moment, Cathy charged in and kicked the monster back.

“_Thanks,_” Catherine grunted out as she dodged back to gain some more space and slash forward again.

Meanwhile Anne decided to jump to the back to flank the two monsters that hadn’t targeted Catherine. With just two to attack, it was true that it was easier for her to dodge the attacks that came her way, and soon she managed to take one monster down with two swift punches to torso. In her haste to attack, though, the other managed to get a quick swipe in that Anne couldn’t fully dodge. It managed to graze her chest, and she was pushed back quite a bit.

With Anne out of the way, the monster noticed how well Catherine and Cathy were faring, as they had managed to take out two more monsters. It turned its attention back to Catherine and started charging at her while her sword was stuck in the middle of another monster.

Before it made it though, Anne got to her feet, summoned a dagger into her hand, and threw it at the creature, hitting it in the shoulder and throwing it off balance. Catherine pulled her sword out of the dissolving monster before her and looked over at her would-be attacker.

“_Did you just—_” Catherine started, staring at the dagger, before another attack from another monster distracted her as she raised her sword just in time to catch the blow, though she stumbled back a bit from the force.

Anne ran forward towards the monster she had just hit. Right as it finally recovered, she grabbed her dagger and gave it a final kick in the chest, pulling the dagger out swiftly. In a tone of awe, she said, “_I got my weapon.”_

Cathy moved forward and gave the monster that had pushed Catherine back a few quick punches as it fell apart. Thus, they defeated the last of their enemies.

“_Holy shit, we did it,_” Cathy said, looking towards Catherine and Anne.

“_Don’t celebrate just yet_,” Catherine said looking towards the direction of the locker rooms as more monsters seemed to notice the commotion. “_We’ve got a lot more work to do._”

\---

Anna, Kat, and Jane finally reached the gym, noticing the collection of monsters out front. The monsters all turned to look at the three of them, roaring in rage.

“_Oh god, I really wasn’t expecting to have to fight this soon,_” Jane said, getting into her combat stance a little bit unsteadily.

“_Don’t worry. Kat and I have your back. We do this together,_” Anna said. “_I’ll charge in and take the brunt of their focus. Kat, cover me like you did last time, and Jane, you’ll help me up front._”

Jane and Kat nodded, and Anna ran forward with Jane right behind her.

Kat repositioned to keep Anna and Jane out of her crossfire. She had managed to hit a few solid shots before, but she wasn’t confident enough in her aim to avoid hurting her friends. Once in position, she began shooting at the monsters on the edge of the fight, taking one down with two arrows to the chest.

Anna delivered a strong blow to the monster in the center and tried to dodge back from the remaining blows. Jane distracted a monster on the side, giving it a solid kick, and sending it stumbling back. While that one tried to recover, Jane switched her attention to another enemy, giving it a few blows that caused it to stumble towards Anna, who gave it a final punch.

Suddenly another monster ran and headbutted Anna, throwing her back a bit. She slid onto the floor, and the monsters began to crowd around her.

“_Anna!_” Jane and Kat shouted, as Kat fired off some more arrows at the edge monsters.

“_Jane, I can’t fire at the monsters around her. I might hit her,_” Kat cried out. She managed to strike down a monster with her arrows, but she was unable to help Anna.

Jane clenched her fists and ran towards Anna. Moving in front of her, Jane held up her arms and closed her eyes in anticipation of the blows. When they didn’t rain down on her, she opened her eyes to see her hand holding up a large black shield.

“_Jane …_” Anna whispered, and Jane pushed the shield forward, forcing the monsters to stumble back.

Anna quickly got up and rejoined Jane’s side. Together, they managed to clear out the remaining group, as Jane pushed forward and covered Anna from blows when she could. Anna made quick work of the remaining monsters, now that she didn’t have to worry about dodging so many attacks.

“_Not bad, team,_” Anna said with a grin after giving a monster a finishing kick.

They raced into the gym only to see another collection of monsters, larger than the last one.

“_There are so many,_” Kat said in horror.

“_But I see the soccer team. Look!_” Anna said, pointing towards the group of girls pressed against the wall, some standing in front of their other teammates protectively. It was brave but also obvious that none of them stood a chance against the monsters. “_Okay, here’s the plan. Jane and Kat, you two are gonna draw the attention of the monsters. With your range, Kat, and your shield, Jane, you should be able to distract them without getting injured. Then, I’ll sneak the team out and get them to safety._”

With a nod, they moved to enact their plan. Kat shot a few arrows into the crowd of monsters, and shouted out, “Hey over here!” A couple of her arrows found their mark, and with a roar, all the monsters had turned from the soccer players to Jane and Kat, who stood at the top of the gym. Jane headed down towards the court to stop any of them from reaching Kat, who continued to fire her arrows at them.

Meanwhile, Anna snuck around the group, approaching her soccer teammates and holding her hands up in peace.

“Hey. My friends are gonna distract those things while I get you out of here. Okay?” she said, beckoning for them to follow her

“Wait,” one of them spoke up. “One of our teammates, Anna. She’s missing. We saw her run towards the football field, but we don’t know if she’s okay.”

Anna smiled at the worried look on her teammates faces. “Don’t worry. I have some friends down there as well. Anna will be fine, I promise. Now come on, follow me.”

They managed to sneak across the court and were almost out of the gym, when one of the monsters noticed and turned its attention towards them. It and a few of its friends started growling and moving towards them.

“Shit,” Anna muttered. She turned to her teammates and said, “Just keep going. The outside should be clear. We’ll hold these ones back while you escape.”

The team left as Anna turned back to the approaching monsters. There were too many for her to take on, and Jane and Kat were in similar trouble. Overwhelmed by the sheer number of monsters, Jane could do little but hold up a shield to protect herself from the constant onslaught of blows. Though she tried her best, she couldn’t stop a few monsters from passing her and heading up towards Kat, who was firing arrows down frantically, only managing to land a few.

Every blow Anna landed was an equally harsh blow back, and she found herself getting pushed constantly. Backed against a wall, she was surrounded by three monsters. In a desperate last attempt, Anna gave a final swing and felt a weapon extend from her arm, slashing all three of them and pushing them back. In her hands was an axe with a red handle.

She looked back at the weakened monsters and grinned, swinging her axe again to take them all down. She then raced towards Kat, who was backed up against the wall as monsters began to surround her. Together, they managed to take down and push the monsters back. Down onto the gym court, Jane had also finally managed to shove back the monsters that were swarming her. With the three working together, the monsters didn’t stand a chance. Once again, Jane covered Anna from the majority of the attacks while Anna struck down the remaining monsters with large swings from her axe. Soon, the court was empty, except for the three exhausted Rangers.

Jane fell to the ground as her shield disappeared.

“_We did it?_” she managed to gasp out between large breaths of air.

“_Yeah … we did it,_” Anna said, and all Kat could do was laugh in relief.

\---

Catherine, Cathy, and Anne fought with the monsters that were trickling out onto the field, but it was clear that there were simply too many to get through to the locker rooms. While they fought the endless stream of monsters, the people in locker room were definitely still in danger. Finally, Catherine made a decision.

“_Cathy, you need to get the people in the locker rooms out. Anne and I will keep these monsters busy, but you need to go around and help the cheerleaders and the football team out._”

“_What? I can’t leave you two to deal with these monsters by yourself,_” Cathy said, refusing to leave Catherine’s side.

“_Cathy, we’ll be fine. I promise. What was that extra practice at the Tower for, if not for this exact moment?_” Catherine assured her.

“_Yeah, and plus, now we both have weapons!_” Anne added.

Cathy hesitated, but with a final “_Please_” from Catherine, Cathy relented and fell back from the fight to sneak around the back.

Though Catherine and Anne’s actions were more frantic, since they had to block more blows than before, they were able to keep up as Catherine’s sword slashed in great arcs and took on the brunt of the damage while Anne focused on enemies with quick attacks and occasionally blocked peripheral strikes from catching Catherine’s weaker side.

Eventually, Cathy made it to the other side where a couple of monsters still remained trying to pound down the locker room door. Cathy made quick work of them as she struck them with a surprise attack.

With the rest of the monsters distracted on the field, Cathy went up to the door and said out loud, “Hey, I’m here to help get you out of the school safely. Could you open the door?”

There was a pause and then there was a lot of shuffling behind the door before it slowly opened to reveal a group of girls looking up at her in fear.

“Who are you?” the one who opened the door asked.

“I’m … a Power Ranger. My friends are holding off some of the monsters on the field, but we need to move quickly so we can get you out safely. We’ll go around the back of the bleachers to avoid the fighting.”

The group of cheerleaders slowly started to look less fearful, and the door opened up more so that they could all get out. The first girl to get out of the locker rooms ran over to the nearby men’s locker rooms and pounded on the door.

“Hey!” she shouted. “It’s ok to come out. We’re safe now.”

After some more shuffling, the men’s locker room opened, and the football team came out as well, all looking a mixture of scared and relieved.

“This … person’s gonna help us get out,” she said, gesturing towards Cathy. Cathy gave a small wave until noticed Henry in the group of boys. Her hand faltered and fell to her side. Of course, he was one of the football players. How could she forget? She never thought she would have to face him again. Although technically it wasn’t really _her_ facing him. It was the Blue Ranger …

“Hey, um …” one of the cheerleaders said, startling Cathy out of her thoughts. The girl looked nervous, holding her arms across her chest. “One of our teammates didn’t hide in the locker room with us. I-I don’t know where she went. Did you find her on the field?”

Cathy furrowed her brows in confusion, before she realized. The girl must be talking about Kat.

“Don’t worry, she’ll be alright. I have some other friends looking for her, and I’m sure they’ll find her.”

The girl bit her lip and nodded, turning to go back to the rest of the group.

“Okay, follow me,” She said, turning to address the whole group. They moved stealthily behind the bleachers. Suddenly, they heard a growl, coming from behind them. Unfortunately, some of the monsters had noticed their departure, and it had gathered its friends to chase after the group.

“Go!” Cathy shouted. “I’ll hold them back. Just get out of here!”

The students ran away as Cathy turned and got into position to fight.

They surrounded her, and there was little Cathy could do but try to dodge and block their attacks. Unable to get a single strike in, she was pushed back further and further. In the corner of her eye, she saw a monster slip past as it headed towards the fleeing students. Cathy extended her hand and saw a blue staff form in her grip, extending and striking the monster in the face.

With her new, extended range, she pushed the enemies around her further away, making sure to keep any from getting past her. She constantly switched between enemies, striking them to keep them at bay, until she had managed to drop a couple of enemies.

In the distance, Catherine and Anne raced towards her, having defeated their long line of enemies at last. With the three of them together, they made quick work of the last dregs of monsters.

Once they were done, Anne gave a loud shout, “_Wooo!_” causing Catherine and Cathy put a hand up to their ears.

“_Ow,” _Catherine hissed, shoving Anne in the shoulder. “_Not into the helmets.”_

“_I’m assuming that means you three took care of everything?_” Jane asked.

“_Yep. The cheerleaders and football team are out of here. Plus, we all got our weapons,_” Cathy said.

“_Huh, what a coincidence, because we got the soccer team out and our weapons too,_” Anna said.

“_Omg, I can’t wait to see what everyone’s weapons look like,_” Anne said.

“_Okay, but before we meet up, Kat and Anna should definitely meet up with their teams. It would look suspicious if they were the only ones of their teams to go missing,_” Cathy said.

“_Agreed_,” Anna said. “_We’ll meet up with the rest of you later, and then we can brag about who has the coolest weapon. Spoiler alert: it’s me._”

With that, the group split up. Kat and Anna dropped their armor as they reunited with their worried teammates.

Anna was accepted with excited shouts as her teammates rushed forward to greet her, pulling her into a large group hug. Everyone talked over each other as they asked her questions about where she had gone and if she was okay.

Kat received a more lukewarm greeting from her fellow cheerleaders, but it was clear that they were relieved to see her okay. They welcomed her into the fold, and the girl who had asked after her murmured how glad she was that they found her.

The other four Rangers made it a few blocks away from the school before dropping their armor once they were in an alleyway out of sight.

“Jesus, what a day,” Anne said, slumping against the wall of the alley.

“I know. That can’t have taken more than 30 minutes, and yet it feels like it lasted forever,” Cathy agreed. “I’m so glad we stood up to the Ladies in Waiting, though. Who knows what would’ve happened if we hadn’t?”

“Ugh, I forgot about them. We’re gonna have to back and face them,” Anne said. “You think they’re gonna be pissed at us?”

“Oh, definitely,” Catherine said. “Maybe once we show them everyone’s new weapons, they’ll forgive us, though.”

“Yeah, I bet they didn’t expect that, huh?” Anne said with a grin. “And they called us doomed.”

Catherine rolled her eyes, but there was a hint of a smile at the edge of her lips

Suddenly, Jane’s phone began buzzing, and she pulled it out of her pocket. Her eyes widened she whispered a soft, “Oh, no” before tapping the screen and putting it up to her ear.

“Mom, I’m _so _sorry. I—” Jane started, biting her lip as she was cut off. “I know. I’m really sorry, but my friends had an emergency, and I … It was really urgent, I swear … Yeah, they’re okay now. Do you need me home? … Yeah … Okay. Thanks mom. I love you … Bye.”

Jane hung up the phone, biting her lip some more with a worried look on her face.

“Is everything okay?” Catherine said softly.

Jane sighed and said, “Yeah. My mom got home and was worried because I had Edward at home alone.”

“Is Edward okay?” Catherine asked.

“He’s fine. He was just … He was crying when my mom got home,” Jane said softly, before shaking her head and closing her eyes. She took a deep breath. “It’s okay though. My mom said he’s okay.”

“I’m so sorry,” Cathy said with a frown. “It must have been difficult to have to leave him.”

Jane gave Cathy a small smile. “Thanks, but it wasn’t too hard of a choice. Kat and Anna were in danger, and the rest of you were going to risk your lives to help them. Of course I was going to go.” Jane sighed. “I just … wish that being a Ranger didn’t conflict with taking care of Edward.”

There was a short silence before Catherine said, “Jane, if there’s anything that I can do to help, just ask. I’m here for you.”

“And me,” Anne added, giving Jane one of her patent grins.

“Same here,” Cathy said with a smile. “And not to speak for Kat or Anna, but I’m pretty sure they would say the same too. After all, you don’t fight off a horde of monsters with people you don’t care about.”

“That’s right! It’s ride or die, baby!” Anne said. Cathy laughed while Catherine gave a small snort. And despite the heavy feeling in her chest, Jane couldn’t help but chuckle as well.

\---

“It just doesn’t make sense!” Maggie shouted throwing her hands up in the air. “If Eldon were at full power, there’s no way they all would’ve made it out alive.”

“Maggie—” Bessie tried to say.

“No,” Maggie snarled turning to face Bessie. “We have had Rangers with _years_ more experience than them fall to Eldon. Why should these six make it out after a _day_ of training? What makes them so special?”

“They’re not special,” Maria said. “They’re just lucky, which makes _us_ lucky too, Maggie. It means that we still have a chance to stop Eldon.”

Maggie huffed, but had nothing to say in response.

“Look Maggie, we get it,” Bessie said with a dry laugh. “Out of everyone in the world, we get it, okay? It’s not fair that these six are the ones to survive, but we can’t stay stuck in the past, okay? They’re all gone, and these six Rangers are who we have right now.”

Maggie closed her eyes and grinded her teeth. “They just don’t understand. Everything we’ve had to lose, and they act like they’re invincible.”

“That’s how they always are though,” Joan said with a smile that didn’t waver, even as Maggie’s angry glare fell upon her. “Don’t you remember? They’ve always been brave and optimistic and a little naïve. That’s what makes them Rangers. If they were willing to let civilians die, would they really be Power Rangers?”

There was a brief silence, until Maria said, “Joan’s right. I think experience may be clouding our judgement rather than sharpening it. To think we could stop them from saving lives is a little foolish.”

Maggie took deep breath and sighed. “Okay fine. But it still doesn’t make sense how they made it out. What’s holding Eldon back? And what’s he hoping to achieve by attacking these random places?”

Maria shrugged. “That’s just something we’ll have to figure out along the way. But until then, we need to keep preparing these new Rangers for when he does get his full power back. If we can’t stop them from being reckless, we need to help them as best we can to survive.”

“Yeah,” Bessie said, “and they need a _lot_ of help. Especially now they have their new weapons.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it a little unrealistic that the six of them are this good with their weapons already? Perhaps, but don't worry. I have a good explanation: it's magic.


	10. too many years lost in history

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EXCITING news: I have made a [uquiz for which queen you are](https://uquiz.com/LlfDQE), so please take it! Yes, this quiz is half the reason it took me a while to write this chapter (the other half being school pls help me). I couldn't figure out how to share it on tumblr bc apparently posts with links don't show up ?? So if you enjoy the quiz, maybe share it with people because I spent way longer than I should have on it and I want validation lol 
> 
> Anyway, y'all are probably here for the actual fic, so uh, I hope you appreciate this chapter where nothing really happens lmao. Sorry rip, I got out too much plot in the last chapter and my brain was too fried to think of writing important things happening.

“They can’t be _that_ mad, can they? I mean, like, we did win.”

Kat looked unsure as she and the others walked through the woods on their way back to the Tower, obviously worried about how the Ladies in Waiting would react.

“Oh, they definitely can,” Anne said with an edge in her tone. “You should’ve seen the way they were looking at us, as if _we_ were the ones attacking the school.”

“I mean, they did have their reasons for not wanting us to go,” Jane said nervously.

“Yeah. Shitty ones, if you ask me,” Anne muttered under her breath.

“Well there’s no need to act like they’re the villains either,” Catherine said with a huff.

Anne sharply looked up at Catherine, the crease in her forehead deepening as her mouth dropped open in shock. “I’m sorry, are you actually defending them? After they told us to let people die?”

“I’m not saying I agree with them,” Catherine snapped back, “but I don’t think they’re evil people for wanting to prioritize us surviving this long enough to defeat Eldon.

When they reached the entrance, the stone once again split down the middle and turned into a door. At this point, Anna turned to look at the group and said, “Guys, it really doesn’t matter whether or not we agree or disagree with them. Either way we’re gonna have to deal with the consequences of going against them.”

Anna gave a pointed look at Anne as she continued, “Just promise me that no one will say something to piss the Ladies in Waiting off even more?”

Anne rolled her eyes and huffed out, “Fine,” though she refused to look Anna in the eyes.

The six of them entered the Tower and walked into the center of it in silence. As soon as they entered the main room, the four Ladies in Waiting looked up as they stood around the center table.

Maggie stood the furthest away on the other side of the table, and she instantly looked away as soon as she saw them, the scowl on her face deepening ever so slightly. She was the only one who looked genuinely upset, however. Maria and Joan stood on the side of the table nearest to the Rangers. Maria looked like she was trying to smile but was only managing ta grimace while Joan had a small smile on her face, almost like an offering of peace. And finally, Bessie leaned against the side of the table with a neutral look on her face, simply looking at each of them as though curious.

All of the Rangers looked slightly nervous. Even Anne, who had been trying to look defiantly at the Ladies in Waiting, had an uncertain look on her face.

“Okay, look. We, um, we want to apologize for the way we acted,” Maria said.

“Wait, you’re apologizing to us?” Anna asked, looking just as shocked as the rest of the Rangers.

“Why do you all look so surprised?” Bessie asked, raising one of her eyebrows.

“I mean … we just kind of expected that you would want _us _to apologize to you,” Anna said.

“Well, were you going to apologize to us?” Bessie said, looking genuinely curious. When the Rangers remained silent, she snorted. “Didn’t think so.”

“The point is,” Joan said, trying to interrupt any tension that was about to arise, “that we shouldn’t have treated you that way. We’re here to help you, not tell you what to do, and it was wrong of us to try and control you like that.” Joan gave a soft smile. “You wanted to help protect your friends. We shouldn’t have acted like you were wrong for that.”

“That being said, we’re not apologizing for the things we said,” Maria said, her frown deepening. “We’re not going to force you to do what we want, but that doesn’t mean that we’re sorry for trying to keep you alive.”

Anne’s face twisted in a look of distaste, but to her credit she didn’t try to argue. Anna simply nodded in agreement, a little surprised at how well the whole encounter was going.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s great,” Bessie interrupted, pushing off from the table she was leaning on and looking a little more excited. “Now that we’ve gotten all the apologies done or whatever, how about you show us your weapons? We’re dying to see them.”

“You already know about them?” Catherine asked, looking as shocked as the others.

“Oh, yeah,” Bessie said with a wide grin. “It was like this huge surge of magic throughout the Tower. Couldn’t miss it.” She gestured to the table. “Now come on. Out with it.”

The Rangers looked at each other and stepped forward to the table. One by one they summoned their weapons and placed them on the table.

Catherine summoned her longsword with its shiny, golden hilt. The center line of the blade was light yellow color while the edges were bright silver. Along the blade were glowing, golden runes that dimmed as Catherine placed it onto the table.

Anne summoned a dagger with a dark green leather wrapped around the hilt. The blade was a matte black with glowing, green runes. Just like Catherine’s sword, they dimmed as Anne placed the dagger on the table.

Jane summoned her shield, shaped with a flat top that curved to a point at the bottom. It was a metallic black bordered by bright silver. White lines formed a cross on the front the shield, and down the vertical line were glowing, black runes that dimmed as Jane placed her shield down.

Anna summoned a double headed battle axe with a black leather grip and a dark mahogany handle. The steel axe heads were stained red except for the edges of the blades, which were a dark silver. Along the handle were red runes that glowed red and dimmed as soon as Anna placed it onto the table.

Kat summoned a short bow made with black wood with pink swirls reaching from the top of the bow to the bottom. The bowstring was light pink and had an ethereal glow to it, looking as though you could pass your hand through it. The top half of the bow had glowing pink runes down the wood that also dimmed as Kat placed it down.

Cathy summoned her staff. It was bright silver with a light blue pattern spiraling around. Down the length of the staff were glowing blue runes that dimmed as Cathy placed the staff on the table.

The Ladies in Waiting stood in silence as they stared at the weapons in what looked like a mix of awe and fondness. Even Maggie had lost the furrow in her brow.

Bessie was the first to reach out, placing her hand on the battle axe, smiling faintly as the runes lit up for a brief moment. As if she had broken some spell, the other Ladies in Waiting reached out, passing their fingers over the other weapons.

“It never gets old,” Joan murmured, tracing the runes on the shield. “Seeing the weapons, that is.”

Maggie bit her lip as she passed her fingers over the dagger, taking in a shaky breath. Maria reached out and squeezed Maggie’s free hand, giving a look of understanding.

They each took a moment, looking over the weapons, before Bessie cleared her throat.

“Well now that you have your weapons, training will be much more exciting,” Bessie said, looking up towards the other Ladies in Waiting.

Maria sighed and nodded. “Right. We should probably get into that. Today we’ll split you up so each of you can get focused training with your weapon. Catherine and Cathy, you two will be with me since the longsword and quarterstaff are fairly similar in combat style.”

“Anna, you’ll train the battle axe with me,” Bessie said.

“Jane and Kat, you’ll both be training with me. I’ll be switching off between the two of you,” Joan said.

“And Anne, you’ll train with me,” Maggie said.

The Rangers nodded and grabbed their weapons. They all moved into the training room as they split up into their groups.

\---

“You’re going to want your elbow here,” Joan said, adjusting Kat’s posture slightly from where it was.

Kat paused and then fired at the simulation target Joan had set up. The target was further away than all the monsters she’d been fighting before, and this time the target was smaller than the huge, hulking bodies she had been shooting at. Her shot went a bit too far the left, just missing the target by an inch.

Kat sighed, feeling a little frustrated with herself. She had gotten a couple of arrows into the target, but none had been close to the bullseye.

“Don’t worry, it does take some practice,” Joan said with a sympathetic smile. “Besides, considering you’ve just started learning, you’re quite the natural.”

Kat huffed a laugh. “You probably say that to all of the Pink Rangers.”

“Doesn’t make it any less true,” Joan said as Kat lined up to take another shot. “Pull your shoulders back a bit—you want to use your core more.”

Joan looked over at Jane, who was at the moment going over combat drills with her shield. A simulation of a swordsman stood before her, making the same series of strikes at regular intervals.

“Keep practicing that,” she said to Kat before turning to Jane. “Jane, your stance is too closed. Widen it up a bit—Yes, that’s better.”

“What’s the point—” Jane said, pausing as the simulation took a swing at her. She reacted quickly, slamming the sword aside and kicking the simulation down before it instantly reformed, “—in practicing combat against a human if—” she paused again, going through the same motions, “—we’re just going to be fighting monsters?”

“Well, you won’t always be fighting monsters. Eventually you’ll be fighting Eldon,” Joan said, her face darkening for a moment. “And besides. The more his powers grow, the more complex his monsters will be. They might seem easy to destroy now, but I’m sure they’ll get smarter and harder.”

“Eldon gets stronger than this?” Kat asked, her eyebrows narrowing.

“Much stronger,” Joan said solemnly. “We Ladies in Waiting have been training with these weapons for many years, and at his greatest strength, he could summon monsters that rival our combat abilities.”

“How did the last Rangers stop it him?” Jane asked, stepping back from the simulation.

“They didn’t,” Joan said, looking down and away. “Instead, they sacrificed their lives to seal all of the demons away, and clearly, it still wasn’t enough.”

There was a moment of silence until Joan shook her head. “Anyways,” she said, waving at the simulation in front of Joan, stopping its movements. “It seems like you’ve gotten the basic movements down. Let’s try chaining some attacks together, shall we?”

Another swordsman appeared next to the first, and Jane grimaced, looking at Joan with an uncertain face. “You really think I can face two of them?”

“Not exactly,” Joan said, a smile slowly forming on her face, “but we’ll find out soon. Try to remember the attacks and counterattacks I showed you!”

Joan then turned to Kat. “And don’t think you’re getting off that easy either. I can think of a new exercise for you too.” She lifted her hand, and a small group of men appeared at the distance of the target. “Let’s see if you can shoot them all down before they reach you.”

Kat whimpered. “This is somehow more terrifying than the monsters running at us earlier.”

“Yup!” Joan said with a smile that was a little too bright. “Smaller targets that move faster. You ready?”

Kat looked over at Joan, squinting in suspicion. “You’re enjoying this aren’t you?”

Joan gave a small laugh. “Just a little. It’s been a while since I’ve had Rangers to torture. Now come on, into proper form. Your targets aren’t going to wait for you to get ready.”

Kat pouted before turning back to face the simulations, raising her bow as they started to move.

\---

Catherine groaned as she lay on the ground. “How was fighting monsters easier than this training?”

Maria shook her head, an amused smile on her face. “I think you’re forgetting how much you struggled with those ‘easier’ monsters earlier today. Just because you have weapons doesn’t mean all combat is going to get easier.”

Catherine sat up and watched Cathy do her drills. A simulation of a man with a quarterstaff stood before her, executing a series of attacks against her. Cathy waved her staff around furiously trying to block each other its blows. Eventually though, it managed to catch her in the legs, and she collapsed to the ground just like Catherine.

“Not bad, though you’re still a little slow with moving the staff. You need to react faster and use some of the counterattacks I taught you, instead of allowing the enemy to continue making strikes at you,” Maria said.

“You make it sound so easy,” Cathy huffed, slightly out of breath.

“I know it’s not,” Maria said with a laugh, “but you’re doing better than you think, I promise. Most people on their first day of using a staff wouldn’t last a second against another enemy. The problem for you is moving beyond what the magic of your weapon is telling you and learning the instincts for yourself.”

“And how long will that take?” Catherine asked.

“Truthfully, I have no idea. All of our past Rangers already had combat experience. The war against the demons had been going on for a while, so the Coins always ended up choose people who had already been training to be soldiers.”

“That’s … dark,” Cathy said with a frown.

Maria shrugged. “It was life back then.”

“How long did the war last?” Catherine asked.

“Hard to say,” Maria said, looking away I thought. “It’d be hard to pinpoint a certain day that the war started. Demons had started becoming more aggressive for decades before anyone even realized that trouble was brewing, and it was hardly a continuous war. Battles just broke out at random.”

“But how long have you been the Ladies in Waiting?” Catherine clarified.

“Well if you don’t count all the time we spent sleeping, maybe … a hundred years?” Maria said with a shrug.

Catherine and Cathy looked at each other with frowns.

“Oh, don’t look like that,” Maria said, waving her hand around. “We’ve had plenty of time to cope with it. Trust me. Now come on, time to get back to training.”

She held a hand out and pulled Catherine up to her feet. With a snap, the simulation in front of Catherine reformed, and a man with a longsword got into formation. Catherine sighed and fell into the stance.

“Straighten your back and lean forward more,” she instructed Catherine as she walked over and pulled Cathy up as well. “You could benefit from the same advice too.”

Cathy sighed. “Noted.”

She got into her stance as well and started her duel once more.

\---

“Faster,” Bessie said, watching Anna swing her axe at the simulation in front of her.

“Seriously?” Anna grunted. “I’m going as fast as humanly possible. Probably even faster.”

“Oh please, I’ve seen plenty of Rangers go faster than you,” Bessie said, watching Anna continue her drill. “See, it’s still too slow. When you slash down, it leaves your arm vulnerable and opens you up for attack.”

“I’m only open for like a second,” Anna protested. Bessie raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, then. Come at me,” Bessie said, summoning her own simulation axe.

Anna narrowed her eyebrows and tried to backpedal. “Uh, I take it back. You’re absolutely right, I’m too open, and I need to go faster.”

Bessie grinned. “No, come on. Rush at me. I haven’t had a good fight in forever. Literally.”

Anna grimaced and muttered. “Me and my stupid mouth,” but she got into the proper stance. She ran forward at Bessie who easily sidestepped Anna’s attack and before Anna could react, Bessie slashed down with her axe as it went through Anna’s arm. She winced, though she didn’t feel any pain.

“See? Too slow. You’re finishing your arc too low, which means it takes double the time to swap hands and swing the axe back up. By that time, the enemy has already started on their attack,” Bessie said, stepping back as the axe she had summoned vanished. She made an exaggerated sigh as she added, “Guess I’m going to have to wait a while longer for that good fight.”

“I don’t get it,” Anna said, rubbing her arm where the simulation had passed through it. “If you four are so good at fighting, why can’t you just be the next Rangers?”

Bessie shook her head. “It just doesn’t work like that. We can’t leave the Tower. Our life essence is bound to the magic in here. Trust me. If I had the opportunity to beat up demons, I would. We all would.”

Anna paused looking around at the other Ladies in Waiting. “Have you ever fought the demons?”

“Yes. Before we became Ladies in Waiting,” Bessie said, pausing before she added, “And then one more fight, at the very end of everything when the demons stormed the Tower. I guess it wasn’t really the end of everything though, since we’re awake again.”

“You didn’t expect to ever wake up again?” Anna asked, looking back at Bessie.

“Nope.”

“What was it like? Waking up again, I mean,” Anna asked, tilting her head in curiosity.

Bessie went silent for a moment, looking off into the distance.

“I don’t know. You’d think after sleeping for hundreds of years, you might wake up feeling refreshed, but I just felt … tired. I thought after everything, we’d finally earned some rest y’know?” Bessie said, giving a short, humorless laugh.

Anna simply watched Bessie with worried eyes, unsure of what she could even say in response. Bessie looked back at Anna and noticed her look.

She put a smile back her face as she said, “Ah, my bad. Didn’t mean to sound so down. I promise we’re fine.”

“You’re sure?” Anna asked, a frown still on her face.

Bessie laughed. “Yeah. I am. And I’ll be even better once you start swinging that axe like you mean it. Come on, try me again. Let’s see if you can last longer than last time.”

\---

Anne swung her dagger down at Maggie, only for Maggie to catch her arm on its way down with the edge of her blade. Maggie hooked the back of Anne’s and, twisting her arm around and locking Anne in her grasp.

“Ow, ow, ow,” she whined as Maggie released Anne.

“When you feel your enemy catch your wrist like that, you need to drop your arm and get under theirs before they can get their counterattack in.”

“This sucks,” Anne groaned, rotating her shoulder. “Why are counter-counterattacks even a thing?”

“I mean, I clearly showed why,” Maggie said flatly.

“Yeah, but can’t I just learn to like … attack faster or something?”

“Well yes, being faster than your enemy is a legitimate tactic,” Maggie said, “but that just comes with more practice, and no matter how fast you get, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll never meet an opponent who’s faster.”

“Gee, thanks for the confidence,” Anne said, but got into position to fight her once more.

Instead of a slash, Anne went for a stab, moving forward at the target. Maggie easily hooked Anne’s arm with her blade, sidestepping Anne’s movement.

“C’mon Anne, how do you counter this move?” Maggie said.

Anne grimaced, trying to think furiously. “I raise my dagger?”

“Try it,” Maggie said, and as soon as Anne started to move, Maggie twisted her blade and stabbed forward into Anne’s stomach with the simulated dagger. “You need to predict my attack and block it before you act. Try again.”

Anne huffed and brought her arm up to push up against Maggie’s elbow, blocking it from bending or turning.

“Good, and then?”

Anne lifted her dagger up out of the hook and angled it towards Maggie’s neck.

“Yes, exactly. Remember to keep tension against your enemy’s elbow. If you can control their arm, you can control where their blade is. Similarly, if they block your arm, they’ll be able to stop you from your counterattack. Now let’s do it again.”

Anne got into her stance and stabbed forward again. This time when Maggie hooked Anne’s arm, she moved faster to push against Maggie’s arm with her free hand and lift her blade up into a position where she’d be able to slash downwards.

“Good, except you don’t want it to feel like a sequence of movements. They should all be happening at once. It needs to be faster, otherwise your opponent will gain the control over your movement. Again.”

Anne repeated the same movements, managing to make her motions a bit faster and more fluid.

“Good, again.”

Anne groaned, but followed Maggie’s instructions, trying to go even faster.

“Again.”

“Ugh seriously? This is so boring,” Anne complained.

“Sorry if training isn’t exactly thrilling for you,” Maggie snapped, “but this is what it takes for you to stay alive, so if you could please take this seriously—”

“Are you trying to insinuate that I’m not taking this seriously?” Anne asked, sounded a bit outraged.

“I’m just saying that I’m surprised that you managed to survive one battle with this kind of attitude,” Maggie shot back at Anne.

Anne glared Maggie down, going silent for a moment before asking, “Why are you acting like that?”

“Like what?” Maggie said through gritted teeth.

“Like you hate my fucking guts,” Anne said.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Maggie argued back, but Anne just gave a bitter laugh.

“Oh please. Ever since we got back you’ve been acting like you would’ve rather not seen me again. I mean what is it? Are you really that pissed that we disobeyed your orders?”

“No—”

“Or do you really think we should’ve let all those students get hurt?”

“No—”

“Or maybe you would have preferred if we had died in that battle earlier.”

“I would never—” Maggie snarled before stopping herself. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and stared Anne down. “Don’t say things like you think you know me.”

“Okay fine, then what is it?” Anne said with an exasperated tone. “What did I do that was so wrong?”

“Nothing!” Maggie shouted. “You didn’t do anything wrong!”

There was a silence around the room as everyone else paused what they were doing to stare at Maggie and Anne. Gradually, the Ladies in Waiting gathered the attention of their Rangers to get back to training as Maggie closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“I’m not upset at _you_, Anne. You just remind me of—,” Maggie said, cutting herself off and taking a deep breath. She opened her eyes to look at Anne. “Can we please just drop this?”

Anne stared at Maggie, as though she might be able to find the answers she was looking for in Maggie’s face.

“Only if you promise to stop acting like you hate me for trying to help those people,” Anne said stubbornly.

Maggie gave a small huff and looked up, working her jaw. Finally, she softly said, “Yeah, okay. I can do that.”

Anne looked more disturbed and confused than satisfied with the conversation, but it was obvious that Maggie wasn’t going to say anymore. Maggie finally looked back at Anne and took a deep breath. “Let’s get back to training, okay? We can do something more fun than drills.”

“Like what?” Anne said, a little wary.

“How about a challenge? You fight me and do your best to hit me with your dagger. If you can’t get single strike on me, then next practice we’ll do drills the whole time. If you can, I’ll let you fight some monsters for fun.”

“Oh, come on. Fighting monsters? That’s the reward I get?” Anne asked, looking seriously unimpressed.

“Well, you’ll also get the honor of seeing the other Ladies in Waiting make fun of me for losing to you,” Maggie said, breaking a small half-smile.

Anne’s mouth widened into a grin. “Now that I would love to see.”

“Well you better keep on dreaming then,” Maggie said, a hint of a smirk showing on her face, “because it’s not gonna happen.”

She quickly got into her fighting stance, and Anne followed.

“We’ll see about that,” Anne said, and then she charged forward.

\---

At the end of the day, the six girls were exhausted and ready to get out. They each groaned about their training on the walk back to the cars, and all of them were eager to head home, especially knowing they still had all their schoolwork to do. Once they reached their cars, they split up, bidding each other farewell.

Once she got home, the first thing Jane wanted to do was lie in bed for an hour or two. Instead, she went to see Edward. He lay in his crib in her mother’s bedroom. She smiled as she saw him sleeping soundly, stopping at the door so that she wouldn’t wake him. She walked past to get to the kitchen, where her mom sat, going through a pile of mail and eating a microwaveable dinner.

She looked up to see Jane and smiled. “Oh, hey sweetie. How are you doing?”

“Okay,” Jane said, pulling out a similar meal from the freezer. “Just a little tired. How about you?”

“I’m doing alright as well,” her mom said, putting down the papers she was flipping through. “Just taking a quick break from work.”

There was a pause until her mom said, “Listen Jane, about this afternoon—”

“I’m so sorry mom,” Jane interrupted. “I was just really worried about my friends, and I swear I wouldn’t have gone if it wasn’t important.”

Jane’s mom laughed. “Jane, calm down. I wasn’t going to lecture you about it. You’re a good kid. I believe you. I just wanted to say that next time an emergency comes up, could you maybe call me first? That way I don’t freak out when I come home to an empty house.”

Jane sighed in relief and smiled. “Yeah, sure.”

“So,” her mom said casually, looking back at the mail, “you haven’t mentioned these friends before.”

“Oh,” Jane said, popping her food into the microwave. “Yeah, I guess we only became friends recently. They’re really good people. I’m glad I got to know them.”

Her mom smiled at that, “How did you meet them?”

Jane paused. “I guess it was just a lot of coincidence. We got put into a … project together. And then I guess we realized there was no point in staying strangers.”

“Ah, so they’re who you’ve been spending so much time with recently.”

Jane winced, both at her mom’s comment and at the beeping of the microwave. She pulled out the food as she said, “Yeah, that would be them. I’m really sorry that I’ve been so absent. I’ll try and shorten our meetings so I can come home sooner—”

“Where did you learn to apologize so much?” her mom suddenly asked, shaking her head.

“Huh?” Jane said as she sat down at the table, suddenly confused.

“Honey, I’m not mad that you’re spending time with your friends,” her mom reassured. “Even if it wasn’t for a project, I would be glad that you have people to hang out with.”

“But you’re already so busy with work, and now I’m leaving you alone to take care of Edward,” Jane protested.

“Jane,” her mom said, reaching out and grabbing her hands. “You’re just a teenager. It’s not supposed to be your responsibility to worry about my work or raising a kid. I want you to be happy. Let me take care of what I can, okay?”

Jane frowned, looking down at her food. How could she not take responsibility when she was the one who put her mom into this situation? She loved Edward, more than she could ever express, but by having him, she had made her mom’s life so much harder.

“Jane?” her mom asked, looking at Jane through worried eyes.

Jane gave her a small smile to reassure her. “Okay mom. I’ll try my best to not worry about you or Edward.”

“That’s my girl,” her mom said as she stood up, grabbing the plastic bowl and pile of papers before her. “I’m gonna go back to getting some work done, alright? I love you.” Her mom gave her a kiss on her head.

“Love you too, mom,” Jane said, smiling at her mom as she left, before sighing and staring at her own food. Maybe her mom was right. She already had her own schoolwork to worry about, not to mention the whole demon problem. She supposed she would have to trade her old worries for new ones. At the very least, she was glad to have friends to face her new problems with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does the random scene with Jane and her mom seem sort of out of place? Perhaps, but also I feel like I've been neglecting her, so I wrote it anyway. <strike>Also I've literally wanted to write that conversation since like the beginning of this fic, and I needed it to happen already.</strike>


	11. time for us to rise above

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all I went back and looked at the first chapters, and wow uhh, I can't believe I forgot that I used to refer to Catherine as Aragon at the beginning of this fic?? And then I randomly just switched to Catherine in the middle of a chapter??? I can't believe none of you dragged me for that.
> 
> Anyways, this is just a heads up that if you see any plot holes or discontinuities, it is completely my fault lmao. I gotta go back and reread my own work smh. Catch me retconning old plots that I ended up ignoring oops. I have some serious love for all of you who really stuck with me this far.

It felt weird to say, but Cathy finally felt like things were going back to normal. Or at least, they were going back to feeling like normal. She hadn’t always been the best with change, but despite everything, she couldn’t help but think that things had changed for the better. She knew Catherine would warn her about feeling cocky, but Cathy couldn’t help it. I mean, they stopped an evil, demon general! You had to give them some credit.

In fact, that was what Anne was doing as she, Catherine, and Cathy walked towards their lunch table the next day.

“Dude we were _so awesome_,” Anne whispered excitedly. “Like we’re all anyone’s been talking about the whole day! We’re legit superheroes.”

“Yeah, it’s great, if I ignore all of the sore muscles I woke up with today,” Catherine grumbled a bit, rolling her sore shoulder back a bit. “My back and my arms have been killing me.”

“But you admit it is great?” Anne said with a smirk.

Catherine rolled her eyes as she muttered, “Why is that the only thing you heard? Did you seriously miss the whole part where my body is in _pain_?”

And that was perhaps Cathy’s favorite part of the whole thing: Catherine had actually started being civil with Anne. Turns out fighting a horde of monsters side by side with another person helped to build a lot of trust. Even if Catherine still didn’t particularly like Anne, she was at least willing to trust Anne with her life.

Even all the other girls seemed more cheerful after the fight. Kat seemed more relaxed, Jane acted more open with them, and even Anna was smiling wider than usual.

Cathy knew it wouldn’t be like this forever, but for now she reveled in the feeling. Finally, she felt like she was regaining control over her life.

\---

After school, five of them, minus Jane, headed to the Tower immediately after school. Cheer and soccer practice had been put on hold until the school could find a new place for them to practice.

As usual, Cathy stayed back in the central room as the others moved on to the training room. She and Joan had started talking about the similarities between magic and modern technology, and the more that Cathy spoke with Joan, the more she realized how incredible yet mundane magic was.

“I just can’t believe that you had the equivalent of Bluetooth back then,” Cathy said, shaking her head. “I mean, we spent centuries recreating what you always had.”

“Well, to be fair not _everyone_ had magic,” Joan said. “All demons had it, but only a lucky few humans had access to it. It’s the main reason why the demons thought they were superior to us. I think it’s also part of the reason humanity tried so hard to bury the knowledge of magic. They feared that those few, magical humans might become like the demons they had fought so hard against.”

“Well it’s not like everyone has access to technology these days either,” Cathy said wryly. “Power still rests in the hands of a select few, and I’m sure they aren’t so different from the demons you faced.”

Joan shrugged with a sad smile on her face. “Everyone wants to see others as lesser than they are, and everyone thinks they’re justified. There are bad humans just like there are good demons.”

Cathy hummed as Joan played around with the table in the center, where it seemed like the magic in the building was centered. She pulled at glowing strings of magic that looked pack together like a large ball of cotton, except each string had a flowing look, as though they were incredibly thin streams of water.

“What were they like?” Cathy asked suddenly. “Your friends, the original Rangers.”

Joan stilled for a moment before continuing her work.

“They were incredible. They cared so much, and they gave everything they had to help us. And despite everything they went through, they were still so bright and optimistic,” Joan said, smiling wistfully. “They were a lot like the six of you, to be honest. Even the arguing between Maggie and Anne throws me back to the old days. Maggie loved Ani so much, but they were both so stubborn. They butted heads more than the rest of us could stand.”

“Annie?” Cathy asked.

“Oh, sorry. Short for Aniborys,” Joan said with a curious look on her face. “I never realized how similar their names were, huh. Strange coincidence.”

Cathy hummed in thought. She was about to ask another question when Jane walked through, smiling brightly at the two of them.

“There’s the last of you,” Joan said, letting go of the clump of magic and allowing it to disappear as it melted into nothing. “We can pick this up tomorrow.”

Cathy and Jane gave each other a shared look of apprehension at the thought of more training as the three moved into the simulation room to join the others.

\---

Anna looked incredibly smug as they left that night, Jane smiling beside her as the others looked more or less disappointed.

Halfway through training, the Ladies in Waiting had decided to spice it up a bit by pairing the Rangers up and proposing a little competition. Clearly, some of the Rangers were more of sore losers than others, though in their defense, Anna was not a very graceful winner.

“Told you all that I would kick your asses,” Anna practically crowed as they walked through the woods. “My axe work is _flawless_.”

Anne rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. You only won because Jane was there to cover your ass. Any of us would’ve won with her on our side.”

“Oh please,” Catherine scoffed. “Stopping using Jane as an excuse. If you had just followed my lead, we could’ve broken down their defenses. But _no_. You just had to go off on your own to feed your own ego.”

Anne laughed in disbelief. “Oh, so now you’re blaming me? Real cheap, Aragon. Maybe instead of expecting everyone to do what you want, you should learn to work _with_ other people.”

“That’s rich coming from you,” Catherine huffed.

“Should we be worried about this?” Kat whispered to Cathy and Anna, watching the ensuing argument continue as Jane tried her best calm them both down.

“Are you kidding?” Anna said. “This is way better than the moping Anne was doing before. At least now she’s fired up about something.”

Cathy laughed at that. “Yeah, besides Catherine’s not _actually _angry. She’s just likes to act that way around Anne. When she’s really upset, she just goes silent, and it’s way more terrifying.”

“Ah,” Kat said, relaxing at those words. “I can definitely see it. Like, Catherine is already scary enough when she just looks at you normally. If she ever glared at me, I’d probably just apologize for, like, existing at all.”

“Who wouldn’t,” Cathy said, shaking her head fondly at the fight that continued all the way back to the cars.

\---

“Is it weird that I kind of miss cheer practice?” Kat asked, the next day at lunch. She and Anna had been informed yet again that their practices would be postponed for at least another day.

“Why would that be weird?” Anne asked, picking at the food that Jane had silently placed in front of her, obviously having brought it just for her.

“I dunno,” Kat shrugged. “Cheer practice kind of sucks. Having to practice so near the football team is awful,” Kat said with a disgusted look appearing on her face, “and half of my team straight up ignores me.”

“Then why do you still do cheerleading in the first place?” Cathy asked, sounding extremely confused.

“Because I like it? Because they’re still my team, even if they don’t like me anymore,” Kat said, looking down at her food and poking it around. “I trust them with my life, and I don’t want to just leave them.”

She then looked up with a bit more confidence as she said, “Besides, I’m one of the better flyers on the team. Like, who are they going to replace me with? Victoria? She can barely do a heel stretch.” Kat rolled her eyes before wincing and looking down again as she muttered, “Sorry, that was … mean.”

“Don’t apologize. Hearing you talk shit about your teammates is hilarious,” Anne laughed. “I mean, they totally deserve it for treating you the way they do.”

Kat narrowed her eyebrows. “That’s not—I don’t _want_ to talk shit about my teammates though.”

Anne frowned at that, but before she could say anything back, Jane spoke up, “Kat, of course it’s okay to miss practice. The cheer team were your friends. It makes sense you would like practicing with them.”

Kat shook her head. “I know I just … I feel like I shouldn’t care about them anymore.”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Anne said, staring at Kat with furrowed brows. “It’s not wrong to hate them or anything.”

Anna glanced between Anne and Kat in concern. “It’s not wrong to hate them, but it’s also not wrong to _not_ hate them. Sometimes, you can’t help but care about people, even after they hurt you And yes, them ignoring you does count as hurting you.”

“You make it sound so serious,” Kat grumbled, “but I guess that makes sense. It just kind of sucks.” Kat sighed before adding, “At least Sarah’s started being nicer to me. Sometimes, she even smiles at me in the hallway.”

“Well, the rest of the team probably still cares about you too,” Anna said, and Kat smiled at that in response.

Anne, on the other hand, seemed more disturbed as the conversation continued, gaining a somewhat distant look in her eyes.

“Anyways, I have to say that I miss soccer practice too,” Anna said, grabbing the attention of the group. “I mean, I’ve been getting so good at Ranger training, it makes me feel bad for the rest of you. I think I need a break from it just so you can all catch up. Otherwise, I don’t think Anne’s pride can take it.”

That seemed to snap Anne out of whatever thoughts she was having as she rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well let’s see if you’re still saying that when you don’t have Jane’s shield to hide behind.”

“Ugh, this again?” Catherine said with a roll of her eye.

“No, Anne has a point,” Anna said with a frown. “I mean without Jane’s shield, how will I protect myself from Anne’s tiny, tiny blade?”

“My blade isn’t that small,” Anne protested.

“Oh, I didn’t mean it as an insult, Anne,” Anna said with faux innocence. “I mean, size doesn’t matter after all.”

Anne laughed at that. “Oh my God, you are so dead tonight.”

“Please, can we just have a normal conversation where people aren’t threatening each other?” Catherine begged them.

Anna let the conversation slide into a new topic, satisfied that she had succeeded in getting Anne lighten up a bit. Even though she was sure she would regret it that night, it was definitely worth it.

\---

That afternoon, Cathy watched Joan at work, having explained as much about how the Internet works as she could. As usual, the others were in the other room practicing while Cathy stayed back.

“Hey Joan?” she asked after a long silence had passed.

“Hm?” Joan hummed, picking at the strands she had conjured in the center of the room.

“I was thinking about what you said the other day about there being good demons and bad humans. It’s just … you sealed up all the demons right?”

Joan slowed her work, and she hesitated before saying, “Yes. We did.”

“Do you … do you ever regret it?”

Joan stopped and stared at the mess of magic in her hands.

“Sometimes,” she said softly. After a long pause, she sighed and continued, “Sometimes, I wonder what our friends would think of us. They had always dreamed of a society where demons and humans could live together in peace, and we made that impossible.”

“I’m sorry,” Cathy said, sounding genuinely upset for Joan.

Joan shook her head and started working again, picking apart the strands and connecting them to each other in new combinations.

“Don’t worry about it so much,” she said trying to send a smile Cathy’s way. “It was a choice that needed to be made.”

Cathy looked unsettled, but she let it slide. Instead, she turned the conversation to the work that Joan was doing, “So what exactly are you doing with those strings of magic there?”

“Well,” Joan said, seeming grateful for the topic change, “I was thinking about what you said about those radio waves you mentioned? I think I might be able to find a way to get the magic of the tower to access the different frequencies if I just rearrange these strands …”

\---

This time, it was Anne who looked pleased with herself as the six Rangers left the Tower for the night.

Halfway through training, the Ladies in Waiting had pitted them all against each other in one-on-one duels, which Anna had been less than thrilled to hear after having taunted Anne during lunch.

“I don’t know why you look so smug,” Anna grumbled. “You didn’t even win tonight overall.”

“Yeah, but I totally owned you, which is all I care about,” Anne said, grinning Anna’s way.

“You only beat me ‘cause you caught me off guard,” Anna protested. “How was I supposed to know you could throw your dagger that well?”

“Did you seriously not notice her practicing it with me and Maggie every day before training?” Kat asked. “It’s like, all she’s been doing for the past two days.”

“Excuse me for having focused on my own practice instead of watching Anne throw her knife around,” Anna said as she rolled her eyes, though the slight smile on her face made it obvious she wasn’t actually upset.

“I just can’t believe you’re gloating so much, when we should be praising the actual winner of tonight,” Catherine said, shaking her head.

Anne pouted and wrapped her arm around Kat’s shoulder. “Aw, sorry Kitty. I didn’t mean to steal your spotlight.”

“Kitty?” Cathy asked, raising an eyebrow at Anne.

Anne froze, unsure of what to say, when Kat spoke up, “It’s what she used to call me when we were kids. We’re, uh, we’re cousins.”

There were varying degrees of surprise on the other Rangers’ faces, Anna obviously completely unphased.

“Wow,” Catherine said after a bit of silence, a stunned look on her face. She turned to face Anne and said, “It must suck to know that you were beat by your younger cousin. I mean, how embarrassing.”

Anne’s nervous face was quickly replaced with one of indignation. “Yeah? Well it must suck for you to know you were beat by someone related to me. Guess you’ll never escape being shown up by members of my family.”

“That’s so sad,” Catherine said, shaking her head. “You couldn’t win against me yourself, so you had to rely on your cousin to do your dirty work.”

“Big words from someone only beat me by a technicality,” Anne said.

“It wasn’t a technicality. I hit you with my blade first!”

“Yeah, and my dagger went through your chest right after, so _really_ impressive win, Aragon,” Anne sneered.

“Are they always gonna be like this?” Jane whispered to the others, having learned her lesson the other day that there was no stopping their arguments.

“At least it’s better than Anne bragging, ugh,” Anna said, shaking her head. “I swear, that girl’s ego is like a goddamn roller coaster.”

“I would hardly say that Catherine helps to stabilize it,” Cathy said, raising her eyebrow at Anna’s comment.

“True, but I get what Anna’s saying,” Kat said. “It’s like by arguing with each other, they’re challenging each other to be better. It’s actually kinda nice if you, y’know, ignore all the yelling.”

“Well, I can’t wait until they learn how to challenge each other without actually fighting,” Jane said with a grimace. “I think the point of teamwork is getting along with each other.”

The others mumbled their agreements as Catherine and Anne continued to taunt each other on the walk back.

\---

“Uh, is Jane okay?” Cathy asked as she, Catherine, and Anne sat down at the table for lunch the next day. Jane sat with her head resting on her arms on the table.

“She was acting strange first period too,” Catherine said with frown, placing a nonchalant look on her face as she added, “Not that Anne would know, since she was asleep the whole time.”

Anne dropped her jaw and stared at Catherine in disbelief. “Is now really the time to be taking shots at me?”

Catherine shrugged, not looking at Anne as she opened up her lunch.

“Okay, but seriously, is Jane okay?” Cathy asked, trying to get back on topic.

Finally, Jane lifted her head, looking exhausted as she opened up her lunch and passed Anne a granola bar. “I’m fine. I’m just kind of tired. This semester is way more work than I expected. I thought that Creative Writing and Film Studies would be easy electives.”

“Dude, same,” Anne said, sounding equally as upset. “They make us write so many essays in Film Studies, it’s like taking a second English class.”

“And Creative Writing is like taking _another_ English class,” Jane groaned. “He makes us read so many short stories that I don’t have the time for.”

“Yeah that’s true,” Cathy said, a grimace on her face. “Plus, he actually holds discussion every now and then about the readings, and participation is graded.”

Jane sighed deeply. “I just wasn’t expecting this much reading and writing. I mean, English isn’t exactly my best class. I was already really busy when I just had to …take care of Edward, but now there are Ranger trainings, and I’m just …” She trailed off, and then sighed again.

“Well, lucky for you, English happens to be my best subject,” Cathy said with a smile. “I can help you out if you need. My sleep schedule is already a mess, so it really won’t make that much of a difference.”

“Okay, I don’t like that type of thinking,” Catherine said, giving a dangerous look to Cathy, “but I do agree with the helping.” Catherine looked at Jane kindly. “I meant what I said when I told you I’m here for you.”

Jane smiled. “Thanks Catherine.”

“Omg, we should totally start a study group!” Anne said with a grin. “We’re all basically in the same classes, aren’t we?”

“Uh, not me,” Kat said. “I’m a year younger, remember?”

“Well, we took those classes last year, so it’s even better for you,” Anne said. “It’s the perfect idea! We could do homework together after training.”

“I don’t think my parents would let me stay out that late,” Anna said with a frown. “They’re already upset that I come home so late because of training.”

“And I’m pretty sure my parents wouldn’t like it either,” Catherine said with a frown.

“Ugh fine, I guess we can wait until after Eldon is dead and the Ranger stuff is done to study together,” Anne said, slumping her shoulders.

“Wow, this might be like the first time you’ve ever been excited about studying,” Kat said with laugh.

“I’m pretty sure she just wanted to copy off all our answers,” Catherine said with a snort.

“Not true!” Anne said, looking offended. “I would do my share of the work. We would just split the homework up equally among us so that each of us only has to do a part of it …”

“Yeah, you can count me out,” Catherine said. “I don’t cheat.”

Anne looked like she was about to argue back when Cathy interrupted, “Anyway, I can still help you after school, Jane. I don’t usually do practice before training anyway, and I don’t think Joan needs my help anymore, so I could go to your place to do work together.”

“Really? You don’t mind?” Jane asked.

“Of course not,” Cathy said with a wide smile. “I wouldn’t have offered if I did.”

“Wow,” Anne said, turning to Catherine. “And now that soccer and cheer practice have started up again, I guess you’re gonna be stuck with me alone this afternoon.” Anne smiled sadistically at Catherine, who looked disgusted at the idea.

Catherine closed her eyes as she muttered, “Lord, give me the strength to make it through this afternoon.”

“While you’re at it, you might as well pray for the Ladies in Waiting too,” Anna said with a lopsided grin. “They’re the ones who actually have to deal with both of you.”

Kat laughed and leaned into Anna while Catherine and Anne both gave them sour looks. Cathy and Jane simply shared a look and grinned.

\---

Cathy followed Jane into the kitchen, admiring the embroidery decorating the walls. She could hear Jane cooing over Edward as she placed him in a highchair by the dinner table.

Cathy felt a bit awkward around Edward, not exactly being the best with babies. To be fair, she’d never interacted with a baby before, so she couldn’t say for sure she was bad with them, but she wasn’t sure how to act around them.

Jane sat down next to Edward, and Cathy sat next to her.

“He’s adorable,” she said, feeling like that was something that people usually said about babies. He was currently occupied with a toy that Jane had given him to play with to keep his attention.

Jane beamed with pride, looking a little less tired than she had at school. “Thanks.”

Cathy took a deep breath. “So, what do you want to start on?”

“Have you already read the short stories for Creative Writing?” Jane asked. “I’ve only gotten through one, and I barely understand it.”

Cathy laughed. “Yeah, I have. Reading them is kind of like my study break from other homework. Want me to just summarize the main plots and themes?”

“That would be a lifesaver,” Jane exhaled.

Cathy grinned and explained the various themes in the short stories they’d read as Jane nodded and intermittently took notes.

“Something to note is that these short stories all play on human nature as a central theme. Despite the different tones and settings of each of them, they question what it means to be human and what it means to stay human even during the most drastic experiences,” Cathy said, finishing up her SparkNotes summaries. She noticed that Jane had stopped taking notes, instead just staring at her. She furrowed her eyebrows and asked, “What?”

“What got you into creative writing?” Jane asked. Cathy’s eyes widened in surprise, and Jane quickly said, “Sorry, you don’t have to say if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s okay. It’s just, no one’s ever asked me that before,” Cathy said, humming in thought as she looked away, eyes resting on Edward who noticed her gaze and giggled happily at her.

“I was always a quiet kid. I was shy and kind of awkward, so I had a hard time getting along with others. Catherine always complains that I overthink things too much, and that’s been true ever since I was a kid. Except back then, I didn’t have anyone to share all of those thoughts with. That’s when I turned to writing. Even though I never showed any of my writing to anyone, it made me feel heard, in a sense,” Cathy said, looking back at Jane with a smile. “And the more I got into it and the more I read, the more I realized how beautiful and powerful writing could be.”

“That’s incredible,” Jane said, returning the smile. “So you’ve always known you loved writing?”

Cathy shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so. Why do you ask?”

Jane took a deep breath. “Just wondering I suppose. I don’t think I love creative writing as much as you do, and I thought maybe if I heard why you like it, it would help me appreciate it more.”

“I mean, you don’t have to like creative writing,” Cathy said. “I’ll be sad if you don’t, but I understand. It’s just not for everyone.”

“Thanks,” Jane said with a small smile that eventually faded into a pensive looking frown. “It’s just … sometimes I feel like I don’t have anything to be passionate about. I thought maybe creative writing could be that thing for me, but it clearly isn’t.”

Cathy tilted her head at that. “I don’t think you necessarily need to have something to be passionate about. I mean, it’s nice, but … I think that maybe it’s more important to have things that make you happy. Or just things that you can care about.”

“Things to care about, huh?” Jane said as she looked at Edward, a soft smile on her face. “Maybe you’re right about that.” She looked back at Cathy. “I guess I’m pretty lucky to have plenty of those.”

Cathy’s smile widened, breaking into a small grin. “Yeah. Me too.”

\---

It happened near the end of training. The six Rangers had split into pairs again, this time fighting against simulations to get used to their partner dynamics, when suddenly each Ranger could feel a kind of humming coming from their Coin.

“What was that?” Anne asked, looking towards Maggie, who looked just as confused.

“The system I set up,” Joan said softly as it dawned on her. “The one I was working on with Cathy. I set it up to detect any use of magic so that we’d be better prepared for Eldon’s next attack.”

“He’s finally making another move,” Maria said, saying what was one everyone’s mind.

They all rushed into the central room with Joan leading the group. The table lit up as she approached it, and different images appeared near the center of a large building that the Rangers easily recognized.

“Not the library,” Cathy said, looking horrified.

“Well, the good news is that at least there won’t be a lot of people there,” Catherine said. “It’s so close to closing time that most people will probably have gone.”

“But why would he choose to attack at a time with the least amount of people? Wouldn’t it make sense to attack in the afternoon?” Jane asked.

“Yeah, and why the library? I mean that’s hardly a hotspot, regardless of the time,” Anne pointed out.

“We can worry about is reasoning later. Right now, we better hurry and get there soon,” Anna said. “The library is even further than the school from here. By the time we get there, he could cause a lot of damage.”

The Rangers looked to the Ladies in Waiting, who hadn’t spoken in a while.

“Well what are you looking at us for?” Bessie finally said. “You don’t need our permission. Go out and kick some demon ass for us.”

The Rangers grinned and nodded.

“Let’s show Eldon what we’re made of,” Anna said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something that I think you'll appreciate is that I spent a good amount of time googling the development milestones for babies because I realized I had no idea how Edward should be acting, and then I used none of that information in the two sentences that mention him. 
> 
> I also watched two youtube videos on how the hell the Internet works just so I could put the worlds "radio waves" and "frequencies" in this chapter. Yes, I take my writing very seriously.


	12. get ready for the truth that we'll be revealing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo boy I finally finished all my finals and cranked this out ... hope y'all like reading action sequences because there's a heck of a lot of them in here.
> 
> I don't think I get graphic with injuries, but they are there, so
> 
> tw: mention of blood, major injuries
> 
> I think that's it, but lmk if I should put down any other tws

The Rangers raced towards the library, parking their cars a couple of blocks away and running the rest of the way. Just like at the school, there were police cars and paramedics surrounding the entrance to the library with officers standing around and occasionally speaking into their radios.

As soon as the police saw the Rangers, they stepped aside, recognizing that the six of them were probably their best bet to stopping whatever was going on inside of the building.

“_We need to split up,_” Anna said, grimacing under her helmet. “_Our priority has to be finding any people trapped in there and helping them out._”

“_How are we supposed to that? This place is huge. There’s no way we can cover all of it by ourselves,_” Kat said, looking up at the height of the building. The library was quite large, standing three stories high.

“_Don’t worry about covering the whole building,_” Joan radioed them. “_From what I can tell, the magic is concentrated on the ground level and below._”

“_Below?_” Anne asked. “_The library has a below?_”

“_Yes, the library basement is where they keep all of the historical records,_” Cathy said, and then she immediately whimpered. “_All of those fragile texts are supposed to be kept in a controlled environment…_”

“_How about we worry about the people in there before we worry about the books,_” Catherine said as she placed a comforting hand on Cathy’s shoulder, not that Cathy could feel it under the armor.

“_But why are there even monsters down there?_” Cathy continued to protest. “_It’s not like there would be any civilians there. The library closes the basement to the public at 5._”

“_Are you suggesting Eldon sent monsters into an empty room?_” Jane asked.

“_He didn’t just send monsters down there,_” the six Rangers heard Joan say. “_He _is_ down there._”

There was a brief silence until Anne hissed, “_What?_”

“_I’m detecting someone using magic below the library, which means he must be in there._”

“_But if the basement is empty, why would he be casting magic?_” Catherine said, and there was another silence as no one had a good answer.

“_Okay, look. We’re wasting time by just standing around here,_” Anna said. “_Let’s just get in there and focus on getting people out before we deal with the basement. Joan, let us know if the situation changes down there._”

They walked inside and were soon face to face with a group of snarling monsters.

“_Is it just me, or do they look different?_” Anne said as the whole group summoned their weapons and got into position.

As soon as they started fighting, they could tell that not only did the monsters look different, but they acted different as well.

“_Don’t tell me these things have been taking combat lessons as well,_” Catherine said through gritted teeth, barely raising her sword in time to parry a swing from one of the monsters. The others realized similarly that the monsters were faster and slightly smarter than before. Anne received a glancing blow on her shoulder as she moved a bit too slowly to sidestep an attack while Cathy felt herself being pushed back by three monsters that were focusing on her.

“_Good thing that we’ve been practicing too, then,_” Anna said confidently, first slashing down with her axe before spinning it around to take a monster out with the combo attack. Right as a second creature was about to take advantage of Anna’s split attention, Jane moved forward to shield her from the blow, bashing the monsters head with her shield before giving a decisive kick in the chest.

Catherine quickly moved from a parry into a counterattack, twisting her sword around and stabbing forward into the monster’s chest. As another monster lunged at her, Catherine stepped away and pulled the sword out, causing the attack to fall short of her. She then sliced forward in a large arc, cutting the demon into two.

Anne quickly recovered against the unexpected speed, managing to hook the demon’s arm with her dagger. It quickly reacted by trying to retreat, but Anne was able to jerk her arm back with a quick slice, causing its hand to crumble to the ground. As it stumbled back, Anne dashed forward, giving the monster one final stab to the neck.

Cathy adjusted as well, spinning around quickly to whack the monsters and keep them at bay. Meanwhile, Kat took aim and let an arrow loose into the chest of the demon that was closest to Cathy. Seeing this out of the corner of her eye, Cathy swung around, bringing down her quarterstaff on the wounded monster and crushing it. Cathy then swiveled to quickly block the attack of a second monster, kicking it back, and swinging her staff down once again. At the same time, Kat focused on the third monster, quickly firing shot after shot into its chest. It stumbled back with the force of each arrow until it finally collapsed.

With that, the first wave of monsters was down.

“_See? Nothing we can’t handle,_” Anna said through heavy breaths. She looked around at the rest of the library, scanning for more monsters and more importantly for civilians. “_Okay, let’s split into three groups. Jane and I will head to the far-right section of the library. Cathy and Kat, you’ll take the center area, and Catherine and Anne will check out the back-left of the library. Sound good?_”

Everyone gave an “Okay” before running off to search for any survivors trapped inside the building.

\---

Anna and Jane moved deeper into the library at a steady pace as Jane covered Anna from attacks while Anna dealt devastating blows to the monsters they encountered.

It was immediately clear that being stuck in an enclosed space put civilians in much more danger than if they had been outside. As they moved along, they managed to find several survivors hiding in the wreckage of the library. Having cleared the area behind them, Anna and Jane directed those people to get back to the entrance by themselves.

Near the back, though, Jane and Anna found an unconscious woman, slumped against the wall, probably having been slammed into it.

Anna ran towards her and crouched beside the woman to check her pulse. The moment she grabbed the woman’s wrist though, the woman groaned in pain, seeming to finally come to.

“Ma’am we need to get you out of here. Can you walk?” Anna asked.

“I …” the woman mumbled, clearly still a bit out of it

“I think she has a concussion,” Anna said, looking at her dazed expression. She put her arms around the woman and prepared to lift her up. “We need to get her outside immediately.”

“Wait,” the woman said, sounding more alert. “My daughter. She’s still in there. Back in the children’s section. I tried to go after her but …” the woman trailed off, the voice cracking.

“Everything’s going to be alright, ok? We’re going to get her for you,” Jane said, looking towards Anna as she said, “_You take her outside. I’ll get her daughter._”

“_You sure?_” Anna said, hesitant to leave Jane behind by herself.

“_Yeah. Just hurry back once she’s safe._”

Anna nodded and lifted the woman into her arms, moving quickly to get her outside. Jane turned and ran further in.

“_You should be careful about making promises you don’t know if you can keep,_” Bessie said.

“_What’s that supposed to mean?_” Jane asked, her tone going cold.

There was a brief silence, until Bessie said, “_Nothing. Just … get her daughter back safe._”

Thankfully, the number of monsters Jane encountered on the way back was manageable, even without Anna. Though she took a couple of hits when she wasn’t able to bring her shield up in time, she eventually made it back to the children’s area.

The sight in the smaller section wasn’t pretty. Shelves were toppled over all over the room, and the worst part was that Jane couldn’t see any kid around. Four monsters stood around the room, and they all turned their attention towards Jane as soon as she entered.

Immediately, Jane charged forward at the first of them. She knocked it back with her shield, causing it to stumble back. She then quickly turned her shield to absorb the incoming blows of the other monsters. The sheer force of the remaining three creatures was too strong however, and she felt herself being shoved onto her back. She kicked back at the first approaching enemy and held up her shield to brace for another attack. At just the right moment, Anna came in and sliced into the monster, and it crumbled before them.

Jane took advantage of the monsters’ surprise and stood back up, blocking Anna’s side from any more attacks of opportunity.

“_Thanks,_” Jane said, and Anna nodded in response.

Together, they fought off the monsters with the same dynamic they had built in training. Anna focused on quick slashing movements, stepping back whenever she was particularly exposed, and Jane focused on forward movement, used her shield to block Anna from attacks while also shoving back enemies when she could. Thus, they pushed pack the group until Anna’s slashing moves had taken them all down.

“_Where’s the girl?_” Anna asked, once all the monsters were dead.

“_I don’t know. I can’t find her,_” Jane said frantically, rushing around the room to look for her. Finally, she saw a small figure buried under a fallen bookshelf. She rushed over and lifted the bookcase up with Anna’s help. As Anna held it up, Jane carefully picked the girl up in her arms.

“_Is she…?_” Anna asked, trailing off as she let the bookcase fall back to the ground.

“_She’s breathing,_” Jane said, letting herself release the breath she’d been holding, “_but she’s not doing well. We need to get her outside immediately._”

Anna nodded and the two of them rushed back towards the entrance.

\---

Cathy and Kat arrived at the center of the library where most of the tables and desks were. It immediately made sense why they had been sent there, as Kat would have a much easier time shooting arrows over desks than through or around bookshelves. Unfortunately, the openness of the area also meant that there weren’t really any chokepoints to stop all of the monsters from attacking them at once.

“_Keep aiming for the back line, alright? I’ll keep them away from you,_” Cathy said before running forward to grab the monsters’ attention.

As they charged at her, Cathy used the length of the quarterstaff to attack them from a range and keep them away from her. She spun around, defending herself from attacks coming from all sides, striking down on upon enemies with her quarterstaff and whacking them in the side when they got a bit too close to her.

Kat meanwhile continued to take shots at the ones in the back, keeping her cool and shooting quickly. Even as a few monsters turned to make her their new target, she managed to hold off the majority that tried to charge at her, constantly changing her position to put more distance between herself and them.

Overall, the combat was going fine, until they heard a scream come from further back into the library, on the other side of the desks and the monsters.

“_Shit, I can’t get to them,_” Cathy said. She was still managing to keep up with the enemies that had circled her, but it was clear she wouldn’t be able to move from her position.

“_I-I’ll go,_” Kat said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. “_You sure you can handle these by yourself?_”

“_Yeah,_” Cathy said sounding very out of breath. “_Just go. And you stay safe too._”

Kat looked for an opening as she kept shooting the monsters coming at her. Then she saw her chance as she fired one last shot at the monster closest to her before charging towards it. It fell with a final punch as she continued and stepped onto the desk behind it.

Letting her bow dematerialize, she jumped into a front handspring, using the next monster behind the desk to push off with her hands and landing on the other desk. She then jumped off the desk to run towards the back of the library, having passed the group of monsters that had been heading her way.

“_What was that?_” Cathy asked, having caught the movement in the corner of her eye. “_Don’t tell me that’s what Maggie was doing with you all before training._”

“_Nope,_” Kat said with a slight laugh under her breath. “_Got that one from cheerleading. I’ll show you sometime when we get out of here._”

“_Damn, cheerleaders are scary,_” Cathy muttered under her breath.

Kat saw that a monster had cornered a group of people who had been hiding behind some tables. She summoned her bow once more and fired three quick shots into the monster as it fell to the ground. Before she could run over to the group to check on them, she was struck on the back and fell forward, sliding a few feet. The group of monsters she had jumped over had finally caught up to her.

It was much too close range for her to fight with the bow efficiently, but she couldn’t leave to get the necessary distance. She needed to stay between the civilians behind her and the monsters in front of her. Otherwise, she would be putting them at risk.

Quickly getting to her feet, she summoned her bow to get a few shots in before having to hold it up as a makeshift shield to block the blow of the monster in front of her. She managed to quickly move backwards to avoid the next attack, but she knew she didn’t have much space behind her.

She dematerialized her bow and moved into position to fight with hand-to-hand combat. Thankfully, Joan had continued to train her in hand-to-hand combat, knowing that Kat’s weapon would become useless once enemies got close enough to her. Still, Kat knew she wouldn’t be able to keep up with the steady stream of monsters headed her way. She managed to take down a couple with some well-placed strikes and dodges before one of the monsters hit her in the side, sending her skidding across the floor, leaving the path to the civilians wide open.

Kat summoned her bow once more to take a few desperate shots at the monsters that were approaching the civilians. Then just in time, Cathy came running in to smack the monsters back, placing herself in between the creatures and the group of injured people.

“_Need a hand?_” Cathy asked.

“_You’re a lifesaver. Literally,_” Kat said as she stood up.

Together they made quick work of the remaining monsters with Kat continuing to shoot the back line and Cathy keeping them away the civilians.

Once they were all down, they moved closer to the three people huddled in fear. Upon closer inspection, the civilians looked to be teens around the same age as Cathy and Kat. One of them was unconscious with a wound on his head, and another was clutching her arm to her chest.

“_Hey, it’s okay. We’re going to get you out of here,_” Cathy said. The two conscious ones mumbled their thanks with shaky voices as Cathy reached to pick up the unconscious one. Kat stood by to help the other two to their feet, and the three of them made their way back to the entrance.

\---

Catherine and Anne made their way to the leftmost section of the library. They didn’t make it far into the stacks of bookshelves before a stream of monsters started coming out of the rows of shelves.

Catherine took the lead position, stepping forward to slash with her sword. Because the row between the shelves was thin, there wasn’t enough room for the monsters to gang up on her. However, that also meant that Anne didn’t have enough space to fight beside Catherine.

“_Hold up. I’m going to find a better position to fight from,_” Anne said. She climbed up the adjacent bookshelf and was about to drop down on the other side when Catherine shouted out.

“_Wait! I can handle these monsters fine by myself,_” Catherine said, swinging her sword across to take down the monster in front of her before holding it up to parry the attack of the next oncoming monster. “_Scout out the rest of the library while you’re up there and see if you can find any people who need help._”

“_Ugh, of course you get to do the fun part,_” Anne complained.

“_Anne,_” Catherine said through gritted teeth.

“_Yeah, yeah, I’m going. Don’t die without me,_” Anne said as she leapt from bookshelf to bookshelf, looking around for any civilians.

Eventually, she saw a section where the bookshelves had fallen over. As she approached, she noticed a man stuck under one of them, trying futilely to lift it off his lower body. Anne leapt down and quickly moved to lift the shelf. The man slid out from under it with a gasp of pain. As soon as he was out, Anne put the bookcase down.

“I think my legs are broken,” he said through gritted teeth.

Anne looked around. Some monsters nearest them must have heard the commotion because they started walking towards them.

“Okay, just hold on. I need to take care of them first,” Anne said, turning to the couple of monsters that had approached.

She threw her knife at the closest one, where it buried itself into the monster’s chest. She then darted forward, grabbed the dagger, and yanked it diagonally, cutting through the monster as it fell to the ground. She ducked under the oncoming attack of the other monster, slipping behind it and stabbing it directly to the neck and pulling once again.

Once the monsters were dead, Anne looked back at the man who was lying at the ground, and she grimaced to see him in pain.

“_Hey, Catherine?_” Anne said into her helmet.

“_What is it?_”

“_There’s a guy here with broken legs, and I feel like moving him might be a bad idea? What, uh, what do you think?_” Anne said, biting her lip at the end of it.

“_Two broken legs? Mierda …_” Catherine said, sounding as distressed as Anne currently felt. “_No, please don’t move him. You’ll make the injuries worse. You wouldn’t happen to know how to make a splint, would you?_”

“_No. Do you?_” Anne said, sounding a little bit aggravated.

“_No,_” Catherine replied.

“_Then why would you expect me to know how to make splint?_” Anne said, her voice gradually getting louder.

“_Okay, you need to calm down,_” Catherine said. “_We’ll just have to clear out the monsters and let the paramedics deal with him._”

Anne rolled her eyes and walked back toward the man. In a mocking voice she muttered to herself, “_‘You need to calm down.’ Like I’m not already fucking calm. I feel fucking great._”

“_Anne ,you realize I can still hear you, right?_” Catherine said with an exasperated tone, though a hint of worry crept into her voice.

Anne huffed and decided not to respond. Once she was in front of the man, she said “Okay, I can’t move you in your condition, but once we get rid of all the monsters, I’ll direct EMS to your location. Until then, just … stay here.”

Through the grimace, the man gave her a wry look. “Stay here. Should be easy enough.”

“I need to look for others, but shout if you need help,” Anne said, waiting for the man to nod before rushing off to look for other survivors.

Anne came across quite a lot of survivors, as many people had ended up running further into the library to escape the monsters. Thankfully, no one else seemed to be as injured as the first man, since they had gone deep enough that the monsters hadn’t reached them.

Anne rounded up as many survivors as she could find and began leading them back to the entrance. Halfway through, she caught up with the initial pack of monsters that were swarming around Catherine. Anne stabbed and cut through the back of the group while Catherine worked through the front until they met in the middle.

Catherine looked at the small group of people behind Anne. “_Alright. Let’s head out. We need to get the paramedics for the last guy as soon as possible._”

Anne nodded and they headed towards the entrance.

\---

The six of them met each other outside with the civilians they had managed to gather. Jane handed off the unconscious child to the paramedics while Cathy brought the unconscious boy.

“_That’s everyone?_” Anna asked, as the six Rangers regrouped.

“_No, there’s one more in the back of the library, but I couldn’t move him. His legs are broken,_” Anne said. “_We need to get the EMS in there._”

“_Wait, we need to take care of Eldon first,_” Cathy pointed out. “_As long as he’s in there, we can’t risk bringing in people into the library._”

“_Speaking of Eldon,_” Joan suddenly said, “_I just detected that he’s stopped using magic._”

“_Right now?_” Anna asked, and she immediately turned and started running back into the library as everyone else followed her.

“_Yes, right now. I’m not getting any magic signals anymore. He could be heading anywhere at this point._”

“_Wouldn’t he be heading towards the entrance?_” Kat asked.

“_With all of these police officers?_” Cathy said. “_No, I bet he’s heading towards the back of the library to escape through the fire exits._”

“_Wait, but that’s in the direction of that guy we left in there,_” Anne said in horror.

They ran in, quickly reaching the point where Anne had found the injured civilian. A group of monsters approached him as he screamed, trying to back up even with his injuries.

“_Kat! Shoot the ones closest to him,_” Anna said, pulling out her axe and working on the back line. Kat immediately pulled her bow out and started shooting rapidly at the ones that approached him. “_Everyone else needs to head after Eldon before he gets out!_”

The others raced off, leaving Kat and Anna to protect the man. Further into the back of the library, they saw a figure calmly walking away.

“_Oh no you don’t,_” Anne muttered under her breath as she summoned her dagger and threw it at him.

In a flash, he turned around a caught it between his fingers, tilting his head. His face and body were covered by a light grey armor that looked scarily similar that which the six Rangers wore. He flung the dagger away and raised his hands. The ground in front of them shook, and up rose a new group of monsters.

The group of Rangers skidded to a stop as they faced the group.

“_Fuck!_” Anne cursed. “_He’s going to get away._”

“_No, he won’t,_” Catherine said. “_Jane, you and I are going to make an opening. Anne, Cathy, you two are going to go after him._ _Got it?_”

The others all echoed agreement, and they set into motion.

Catherine charged forward first, with a huge slash towards the center as Jane followed it up, bashing into the monsters next to Catherine’s attack. With a small gap created in the center, Anne quickly dashed through, Cathy following up as she used her quarterstaff to leap over the quickly closing gap.

Once on the other side, Anne quickly scooped up her dagger as Cathy spared a glance back, though she was unable to make anything out beyond the bodies of monsters. Then, they ran onwards to try and catch Eldon before he could escape.

“_Anne, you circle around, okay? Get him by surprise,_” Cathy said, and Anne nodded, breaking away from Cathy.

Soon, Cathy had caught up to Eldon who, sensing her approach, quickly turned around to face her. She brough down her quarterstaff, and he easily sidestepped it, rushing at her while her weapon was extended.

Cathy moved backwards, sticking her staff in front of her to keep Eldon at a distance. At the closer range, she could tell that Eldon’s mask and armor looked much weaker than the Rangers’, already having a few of their own cracks. She just needed to get in a few strikes in the right place.

She swung the quarterstaff, quickly spinning it as Eldon blocked it with his arm. However, he managed to catch with his other hand. He pulled Cathy in, and as she stumbled forward, she tried to raise her other hand to block the incoming blow. Eldon simply grabbed her other arm and kicked her back.

Without warning, Anne suddenly dashed in with the intent to stab him with her dagger. Eldon turned just in time and barely dodged, her dagger merely scraping the mask on his face and adding a new crack. He reached out and caught Anne’s hand, twisting her arm and yanking the dagger from her.

He pushed her against a nearby bookcase, but before he could use her own weapon against her, Cathy’s quarterstaff struck him on the side of the head, as she had managed to recover in time. The mask shattered, and he stumbled away, holding a hand to his face.

Anne snatched her dropped dagger and turned to face Eldon, but what she saw stopped both her and Cathy in their tracks. Behind the mask was the unmistakable face of no one other than Henry Tudor.

Catherine, Jane, Anna, and Kat rushed in at that moment, having defeated the monsters in their path, but they all skidded to a stop beside Anne and Cathy. Before them, half of Henry’s face stared back at them, emotionless. Then, he raised his arms once more, summoning even more monsters, before he fled.

The last group of monsters was small and easy to defeat for all six Rangers, as he had used up all of his magic, but the Rangers had lost their drive to catch Eldon. Or should they call him Henry?

“_That … that can’t be …_” Jane murmured in the remaining silence, mostly to herself.

Eventually, Anna said numbly, “_We need to bring in paramedics._”

She looked around at her fellow Rangers blankly before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. She opened her eyes and said, “_Let’s get out of here._”

The others all turned to look at her, and she nodded, as though to confirm it with herself. Slowly, the others nodded as well, and they let Anna lead them out of the library.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha and the plot twist that literally everyone was expecting ... who knew that Henry would be the villain ... 
> 
> But finally things are heating up!! It's very exciting but also very scary for me to write these spicy plot advancements because now that I've written important things, they have to go somewhere. Please help me I'm out of my depths.


	13. we don't need your love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: slut shaming, mentions of rape, mentions of emotional abuse, alcohol
> 
> I don't go super super into any of the above, but they are all there so take care. Also the alcohol is really only briefly mentioned lol. <strike>I just needed a reason for these emotionally stunted teenagers to talk about their feelings.</strike>
> 
> That's right, this is That Chapter™ and what a bitch it is. I'm pretty sure it features the longest, continuous scene that I've written in this whole fic? And lemme tell you, it was ROUGH. Especially since I am also emotionally stunted and have no idea how to write that lmao. Sorry this took so long, but I hope y'all enjoy it.

As soon as the Rangers entered the Tower, the Ladies in Waiting confronted them with a mixture of confused and worried looks.

“What happened back there? You all suddenly went silent,” Maggie said, looking over the group.

They all looked a bit roughed up. The fight had definitely been harder than the last one, and they all had the bruises to show for it. The bruises would fade quickly, thanks to their super recovery, but it wasn’t their injuries that was concerning them.

“It wasn’t Eldon who was casting the magic,” Anna said, finally breaking the silence since no one else seemed to want to talk.

“What? What do you mean?” Maria stepped forward and asked.

“The person summoning the monsters. We recognized him. He was one of our classmates,” Anna said.

“A human casting magic?” Joan questioned out loud, mostly to herself. “How could that be possible?”

“Eldon must be sharing his powers with this boy,” Maggie said. “There’s no other possibility. Summoning monsters was always Eldon’s thing.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Bessie said, shaking her head. “Why would Eldon be working with a human?”

“And more importantly, why would a human work with Eldon?” Maria raised. 

Anne snorted, cutting into the Ladies in Waiting’s discussion. “I can easily believe Henry would work with him. Literally all Eldon would have to do is soothe Henry’s ego and promise him anything he wanted. Henry only cares about himself. I doubt he’d be that torn up about destroying the town.”

“I don’t buy it,” Catherine said.

“What, you disagree that he’s a selfish bastard?” Anne asked, her eyebrows raised in surprise.

Catherine rolled her eyes. “No, I agree with that. I just don’t think it makes sense. If he’s so selfish, why would he willingly destroy the football fields? He’s the quarterback of the team. Football is basically his entire life.”

“You think he would turn down unlimited power because of _football_?” Anne scoffed. “You have to realize how ridiculous that sounds.”

Catherine scowled and was about to respond, but Joan cut her off and asked, “Do you all know this Henry very well?”

They all looked at each other at that. Kat and Cathy seemed extremely uncomfortable while Anne and Catherine had thinly veiled anger in their expressions. Jane looked down, holding her arm across her chest, and Anna looked back at Joan.

“Yeah, you could say that,” Anna said, answering for the group.

“In the past week or so, did you ever notice him acting strangely?” Joan asked.

There was a silence, until Catherine spoke up with a frown and narrowed eyebrows, “Yeah, actually. I didn’t think anything of it, but … I share a couple of classes with him. He and his friends are usually loud and obnoxious before class, but lately they’ve been less annoying than usual. Henry seemed like he was distracted.”

Kat frowned and looked up at Catherine. “Actually, now that you mention it, I think I noticed the same thing.” Everyone turned their attention to her. “Football practice usually happens next to cheer practice, and I kept hearing the football coach yell at Henry to snap out of it and focus. It got so bad that on Tuesday …” Kat started speaking slower as a thought dawned on her, “… the coach benched Henry for not paying attention.

Soon, the others began to catch on to what Kat was saying.

“Wait, this past Tuesday?” Cathy asked. “As in the Tuesday that the monsters attacked the school?”

“Yeah. Henry got benched right before it happened,” Kat said faintly, her mouth open in shock. She closed her eyes and as murmured under her breath, “Ugh, I’m so stupid. How did I not notice?”

“It’s hardly your fault,” Catherine said with a frown. “How could any of us have known that Henry was …” She looked away as she trailed off.

There was another silence as everyone remained deep in thought, until Bessie asked, “What are you thinking Joan?” and everyone turned their attention to Joan, who held a thoughtful look on her face.

“I’m thinking,” Joan said carefully, “that we’ve been going about this all wrong. I don’t think Eldon ever actually escaped our barrier. Or at least not fully. If he had, then there’s no way he would be using a human to carry out his plans.”

“You think he’s somehow controlling this boy from behind the barrier?” Maggie asked. “Is that even possible?”

“Maybe,” Joan said with a small shrug. “It’s not like we managed to seal away _all_ the magic in the world. If we had, then the Coins never would have reactivated. It’s possible that Eldon still has connections to the magic in this world, even if he isn’t physically here.”

“Wait,” Cathy said, finally breaking out of her silence, “do you mean a connection like a Power Coin? Because I saw Henry wearing armor that looked a lot like ours. I figured that he must have a similar Coin too.”

The Ladies in Waiting shared a concerned look.

“If this is all true, then this would also explain his strange attack patterns,” Maria said. “I was wondering why he attacked the main square in the evening when it wouldn’t be busy, why he attacked the school after most students had left, and why he was casting magic in an empty basement. It’s because he’s not trying to kill anyone. He’s still trying to figure out a way to escape.”

“Of course,” Joan said as she turned to look at Maria. “He’s trying to open the barrier. How could we have missed that?”

She moved to the table to pull up strange images that resembled some type of map.

“But why these three places?” Joan murmured to herself as she played around with and moved the images. “What’s significant about them?”

“I’m sorry, can we back this up a bit?” Anne said, holding up her hands. “I’m still stuck on the fact that Eldon is controlling Henry. Are you saying that he’s possessed? Like he’s not consciously doing any of this?”

“It’s hard to say,” Maria said, sounding apologetic as frowned. “Right now, we barely understand how Eldon is accessing magic in this world at all. At the very least, Henry must have _some_ sense control, or else I’m sure someone would have caught on that he’s not actually himself. As to how much Henry is cooperating with Eldon though, we can’t be sure.” 

“I really doubt that Henry is purposefully working with Eldon, though,” Bessie said, shrugging with her palms face-up. “I just can’t see Eldon working with a human, no matter how desperate he is.”

This answer didn’t seem to soothe any of the tension in the six girls’ faces, which the Ladies in Waiting all noticed as they looked to each other with furrowed eyebrows.

“Look, why don’t you all just head out and get some rest?” Maggie suggested as she turned back to look at the group in concern. “You’ve all been through a lot, and you don’t really need to be here right now. We’ll figure out more information and let you know tomorrow.”

Anna looked around and sighed. “Yeah. That sounds like a good idea.”

The Ladies in Waiting murmured their goodbyes as the group slowly turned around and shuffled out of the Tower and through the woods. It was a silent walk back to their cars, with no one quite sure what to say or what to think even. It wasn’t until they had reached the edge of the woods and were about to split up that Kat spoke.

“I don’t want to go home,” she said softly, stopping in her place. She had her arms wrapped around her body. “I don’t … I don’t really want to be alone right now.”

The whole group stopped to turn back and face her.

“Does anyone?” Cathy asked, looking the others in their eyes.

There was another brief silence as everyone took that in, no one denying the sentiment.

“So then, what do we do now?” Jane asked.

“Can we get something to eat? I’m starving,” Anne said, trying to sound nonchalant. Her voice came out smaller than usual, but the words were enough to ease the tension over the group, even if only slightly, and it elicited a few small smiles from the others.

“Sure, but what do we do after that?” Catherine asked, looking Anne with a raised eyebrow.

Anne’s smile grew a bit wider as she said with a stronger voice, “Well, I guess I have a couple ideas.”

\---

In the end, they did decide to split up momentarily so that everyone could grab what they needed before gathering at the local park, which had long since emptied out earlier in the evening.

Catherine and Cathy picked up a couple of pizzas while Anna and Kat did a convenience store run to get cups and some sodas. Jane and Anne meanwhile drove to Anne’s house so she could pick up “her own stuff,” as she put it.

It was only when they had gathered in the grass by the playground that Anne grinned as she swung her backpack in front of her.

“Check it,” she said, unzipping it to reveal two bottles of liquor. “Stole it from my dad’s stash.”

“Dude,” Anna said, giving a laugh of disbelief, “aren’t you gonna get in trouble?”

“Nah, don’t even worry about it,” Anne said as she pulled them out and left them in the center of their circle next to the food and drinks the others had gathered. “I just figured with all this shit going on, we deserved a break.”

“Damn right,” Anna muttered as she distributed the cups.

“It feels kind of wrong to do this by a children’s playground, though,” Cathy said as she took a cup. She looked to Catherine with a raised eyebrow. “I mean, are you okay with this?”

“Don’t worry,” Catherine said with a wry smile. “I’m used to being around a lot of drunk people. I dated Henry, remember? He always dragged me out to his gross football parties, and we all know what those are like.”

“I’m so glad to get your stamp of approval,” Anne said, sounding only a little sarcastic as she twisted the cap off the first bottle of rum. “I remember going to those parties with you, and I was worried I’d have to call you a hypocrite.”

“Worried? More like you were hoping to,” Catherine scoffed, but it sounded less antagonistic than usual.

To no one’s surprise, Catherine declined any alcohol, sticking with some soda, and Jane followed suit. The rest however, poured themselves drinks as they tried to make light conversation. For a while, it worked. It felt like it could’ve been a normal Friday night for six, completely normal friends.

But as the evening went on and they finished the pizza and emptied out a bottle—which Jane worried over until Cathy waved it off with an explanation of their enhanced regeneration abilities—the conversation approached the one topic none of them wanted to bring up.

“It sounds kind of stupid,” Kat said, “but for a while I actually kinda liked being a Ranger. It was fun.”

“Me too,” Anna said. “It was nice kicking Anne’s ass, at least.”

Anne made a face at Anna, causing Anna to give a small huff of laughter.

“I just didn’t know how bad it would get,” Anna continued, the smile slowly fading from her face.

“There were so many people hurt today,” Cathy said, staring at the ground in front of her.

“And hurt badly,” Jane said, her voice almost a whisper. “When I first found that girl under the bookcase, I thought that she was—” She cut herself off at the last moment. She took a deep breath before looking around at everyone. “I always knew that lives were at stake, but I wasn’t exactly ready to see that in person today.”

The others nodded along solemnly.

“And of course it’s our luck that Henry had to be involved,” Anne grumbled. “Out of all the assholes in this city, Eldon had to pick Henry. So now he gets to fuck us over in our superhero lives just like in our normal lives.”

“Is it bad that I was kinda disappointed when Bessie said that Henry probably isn’t in control of his actions?” Cathy said bitterly, and the others gave her a mixture of concerned and confused looks. “I wanted to be able to blame him for all this.”

“I thought the same thing,” Anne said. Her face held a mixture of a smile and a grimace on it as she added, “Though I’m a pretty awful person, so it’s probably a bad sign to relate to me.”

Catherine gave a wry smile at that. “Normally I’d agree, but at least in this instance, I’d say your feelings are both valid.”

“It’s just not fair,” Kat said, pulling her knees up to her chest. “He ruined our lives, and now he gets to play victim? No one helped us. Why do we have to save him?”

There was a pause of silence, until Jane said, “I just don’t understand how he got so bad. He used to be so kind.”

Anne snorted, rolling her eyes. “Yeah, it was real _kind_ of him to fuck me over so that he could get with you.”

Jane flinched at that, and Catherine spoke up, “That’s not exactly fair. It’s not Jane’s fault that Henry fell in love with her.”

“Oh, so it’s not her fault that Henry literally ruined my entire life, but it’s my fault that he dumped you?” Anne said.

“Well, it’s not like I ever did anything to Henry,” Catherine protested. “I never cheated on him.”

Anne narrowed her eyes, before she shook her head and let a breathy laugh.

“Oh, okay. Yeah, I get it. You’re saying I deserved it. That Henry and everyone else was right. That I’m just a tease, and a bitch. And a fucking slut who should’ve known better,” she said, practically spitting out the end of the phrase.

Catherine frowned. “I didn’t mean that—”

“Yeah. You did,” Anne said, cutting her off. She gave a bitter smile that quickly faded away into anger. “Don’t worry. I don’t blame you. It’s what everyone thinks. Even my own fucking family.”

“Anne, I don’t think that. None of us do,” Catherine argued.

Anne scoffed, “Yeah right. Why wouldn’t you think that I was cheating on him. I already had a reputation for seducing guys who are taken, or don’t you remember?”

“No, I mean—” Catherine tried again, a pained look on her face. “I don’t think you deserved the things that Henry said about you or the way that everyone treated you, regardless of whether you cheated on him or not.”

Anne stared at Catherine in confusion, her eyes widening as she processed Catherine’s words. It was obvious that Anne hadn’t expected her to say those things.

There was a pause, before Anna asked carefully, “You didn’t cheat on him, did you?”

Anne looked at Anna blankly and then looked around at the all faces focused on her. Her mouth opened and closed as she struggled to find the words to explain.

“It was just a kiss,” Anne finally said, her voice weak. “It was at a dumb football party, and I was drunk, and Henry was off with—” Anne cut herself off, briefly glancing at Jane before looking away and sighing. “Henry was somewhere else. And I knew that he didn’t even like me anymore, so why did it matter?” Anne glanced quickly between everyone’s faces as she protested again, “But it was just a kiss. I never—” 

Anne stopped suddenly, pressing her lips together before repeating, “He didn’t even like me anymore. Why couldn’t he have just let me go?”

There was a silence, until Catherine spoke up, “Because this way he’s innocent, right? It’s not his fault if his first girlfriend was a prude and his second is a slut. It’s never his fault.”

Anne looked back at Catherine who looked at Anne apologetically.

“You’re right,” Anna said, nodding her head in agreement with Catherine. “That’s exactly how he used to talk about you all. We ran in the same circles for a bit after I transferred schools, and it was like he only ever repeated the awful things everyone else said about you two. He was obsessed with looking good in front of them.”

“That’s why he said he couldn’t be with me anymore,” Jane added in, her lips downturned slightly. “Because of what his friends and his parents and everyone else would think of him. I was just the girl dumb enough to get pregnant, and he didn’t want to throw away his life because of that.” Jane looked down and stared at her hands. “But I thought that he loved me. I thought that would’ve been enough to make him stay.”

“If it’s any consolation, I think he really did love you,” Anna said as she looked at Jane sympathetically. “I don’t think he ever got over you.”

Jane shook her head. “Even so, it’s just—I thought I saw some good in him. I really did.”

“Me too,” Kat said, softly. “Like, his list of exes should’ve been a huge red flag for me, but I was stupid enough to think that it would be different for me. That I was different.”

“It’s not your fault that you trusted him,” Anna said with a frown.

“Yes it is,” Kat said, staring at the ground resolutely. “I believed all the horrible shit that he said about the rest of you and said all of the terrible things that everyone else in the school was saying. I literally cut Anne out of my life because I thought that—that I was _better _than her.”

Anne winced. “Kat, that’s not—”

“No, Anne. I thought I was better than you,” Kat said with a huff, her voice cracking as she continued, “And we all know how that worked out for me.”

“Kat,” Anna said softly.

Kat looked at Anna, biting her lip before glancing at the others. She took a deep breath.

“I, um … I didn’t want to cheat on Henry,” Kat said, casting her gaze towards the ground. “Since you were all probably wondering.”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to us,” Catherine said softly.

Kat nodded and looked back up. “I know. But I think I should.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Kat saw Anna holding out a hand on the ground towards her. Kat reached out for it and gripped it tightly. She nodded resolutely and looked at the others.

“You all remember Thomas, right? Used to be a linebacker on the football team?” Kat said with a sigh. “He’d always been so sweet to me. Henry got so cold sometimes, and the other football players were just as bad.” Kat shrugged. “I guess I just liked that Thomas liked me. Whenever Henry was … being Henry, Thomas always comforted me. Told me that I deserved better.” Kat huffed a short laugh at that.

“And then one day we were at a party. And I was drunk.” Kat glanced at Anne. “And, uh, I guess I got too friendly with him, or I don’t know, but he started—he started kissing me.” Kat turned her gaze back to the ground. “I told him it was wrong, but he kept pushing it, saying that—that I didn’t love Henry anyway, that he was so much better than him, that it was what I wanted. And I—I didn’t know how to say no.”

Kat swallowed deeply. “And then he pulled me into one of the bedrooms. And I let him.”

A silence fell over the group.

“Kat, that’s …” Cathy said, trying to sound as gentle as possible. “You didn’t _let _him. He pressured you into it. That was … that was rape.”

Kat let out a shuddered breath and said, “I know.” She put a weak smile on her face as she continued, “Or at least, I know that now. That I didn’t—that it wasn’t really consent.”

“Did you file a report against him?” Catherine asked, her face contorted in a mixture of concern and anger.

Kat shook her head. “By the time that I realized that I should, it was too late.”

“It’s never too late,” Catherine said, her face softening as she looked into Kat’s eyes.

Kat looked down. “I don’t know. What good it would do? Besides, Henry already took out his anger on him. He and his friends kicked Thomas off the football team and tormented him until he had to move away.”

“That’s not enough, though,” Anne said with a dark look on his face. “He deserves worse.”

Kit bit her lip and said softly, “Please don’t try anything against him. I just … I want to be done with all of it, you know?”

Anne hesitated, a grimace forming on her face, before she nodded.

“I’m so sorry, Kat,” Jane said, her usually kind face covered by a thin sheet of anger. “You deserved better. From everyone. From all of us.”

Kat smiled sadly at Jane. “We all deserved better. Besides, I’m … I’m better now.” She looked at Anna, squeezing her hand, before looking around at the rest of the group. “Now I have all of you.”

“Now we all have each other,” Anna echoed with a smile.

“Yeah, and Henry has nobody,” Anne said coldly.

Anna shook her head. “And he only has himself to blame. Sometimes I wonder if he ever regrets any of it.”

“He doesn’t,” Cathy said.

“No?” Anna asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Nope,” Cathy said, matter-of-factly. “That’s the thing. He deluded himself into thinking that he was actually justified. That the world had wronged him, and that he was the one who deserved better.”

“What a prick,” Anne muttered.

“Yeah. What a prick,” Cathy echoed.

Anna tilted her head, staring at Cathy for a moment before asking, “What caused you to realize it?”

“Hm?” Cathy hummed in question, glancing over at Anna.

“It’s just that you’re the only one here who never had rumors about her. I only briefly knew Henry, and people talked about me as a desperate chick who was ‘obsessed’ with him,” Anna said, making physical air quotes. “You, however, were the only one who dumped him, and nobody had anything to say about it.”

“That’s cause there _wasn’t_ anything to say about it,” Cathy said flatly.

“I know. That’s my point. Nothing happened. So what made you realize he was an awful person? What pushed you to dump him?”

Cathy sighed deeply and shook her head. “The thing is, I always knew he was an awful person. I’d heard all the rumors, and I didn’t believe they could all be true. But Henry was … he’s smarter than a lot of people give him credit for.” Cathy grimaced. “He knew how to make me feel like I was everything when I was with him, and nothing without him. He pushed all of my friends away from me, and eventually he was right. That without him I had nobody.”

Cathy sighed before looking towards Catherine with a soft smile. “It was Catherine who made me realize that he was wrong. That I wasn’t alone and that I didn’t need Henry. She was there for me every step of the way, until I finally got the courage to dump his ass.”

Catherine looked back at Cathy, a smile tugging at her lips. “And you know what’s the best part? Knowing that despite all the things he said, you are so much more loved than he ever was.”

Cathy smiled, looking around at all the people who looked back at her warmly.

“Yeah!” Kat said, a grin forming on her face. “He was wrong about all of us. We’re so much more without him. If anything, he’s the one who’s nothing without us.”

“You’re absolutely right,” Anne said. She straightened her back and held her head up high as she shouted into the night, “You hear that Henry? You’re nothing without us!”

The others laughed as Anna added, “And guess what? We’re doing great without you!”

“You failed to break us!” Kat yelled, face scrunched in genuine happiness.

“And we are so, _so_ loved!” Cathy yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth.

The four of them fell back onto the grass beneath them, their faces lit up with wide grins. Anne had begun shouting out phrases along the lines of “Fuck you, Henry,” causing the others to break out into laughter as they joined her.

Catherine and Jane watched them from the side, glancing at each other with grins before looking back at the others.

“We really are gonna be okay, aren’t we?” Jane said as she sighed, a content smile settling on her face.

“Yeah,” Catherine nodded, her face reflecting the same expression. “We’re gonna be just fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We touched on some heavy topics today y'all. Please take care of yourselves. I'm sorry if any of my depictions of their issues are bad/insensitive so please lmk if that's so. 
> 
> Otherwise, I just wanna thank y'all for making it this long. I'd always intended to talk about their pasts in this au, but I didn't expect it to take THIRTEEN WHOLE CHAPTERS to get there, so I'm soooo glad we made it. Y'all are great love you <3


	14. so we have no choice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhh ok here we are. Not much happens in this chapter and yet it is so long! I didn't realize how exhausting writing plot stuff is lmao so this chapter was a bit of a break for me. Just some scenes I felt like writing for fun + one serious plot discussion
> 
> tw: some smoking
> 
> Yes that's right I'm finally calling back to that scene from forever ago. Sometimes, I do follow up on the random subplots I sprinkle in. Only sometimes.
> 
> EDIT: bro i literally forgot to title this chapter ... cue me furiously looking six lyrics to find something that fit ...

Anna’s alarm blared at precisely 7 AM, causing a loud groan to come from Kat, who lay next to her. After the events of last night, the group had split up into their usual groups as they headed home. Of course, both Jane and Catherine had insisted they drive Anna and Kat home instead of letting Anna drive while tipsy, and Jane ended up dropping both of them off at Anna’s house for yet another unplanned sleepover. Unlike last week though, this time Anna had remembered to set an alarm.

“Are you serious right now?” Kat said, having rolled over to look at Anna judgingly through half-closed eyes. “Why are you getting up this early.”

Anna shrugged as she slid out of bed. “I gotta do my morning run. I already slacked last Saturday. Can’t start making a habit of it.”

“How do you not have a hangover though?” Kat grumbled.

“You know I’m too cool to get those,” Anna said with a smile as she patted Kat’s head. “I’ll bring up some Advil and water, and you can go back to sleeping the rest of yours off. I bet I’ll even finish my run before you wake up.”

Kat hmphed and closed her eyes again.

Anna got dressed and headed downstairs where she saw her parents sitting around the dining table, cups of coffee in front of them. Her father was typing on a laptop while her mother scrolled through something on her phone. Anna walked past them towards one of the cupboards.

“Good morning,” her mother said, glancing at Anna over her phone.

“Morning,” she said casually, as she pulled out a glass. She brought it over to the sink and started filling it with water.

“You got home late last night. Your father and I had already gone to bed,” her mother said with a hint of tightness in her voice.

“Yeah. I was out with some friends,” Anna said, placing the now full glass on the counter and walking across the room towards the cabinet with their medication and first-aid supplies. She pulled out the bottle of Advil, her mother narrowing her eyes as she heard the rattle of the bottle.

“You have a headache? This early in the morning?”

“Didn’t realize it was a crime to have a headache,” Anna said, rolling her eyes.

“Very funny. I didn’t think we’d have to enforce a curfew either,” her mother shot back.

“It’s not a big deal, okay? I was just out with friends, and I got back fine. Unless you have something legitimate to criticize?” Anna said, avoiding her mother’s glare as she walked back across the room, opening the pantry to grab an energy bar.

“How about the missing car, hm?” her father finally spoke up, not bothering to look up from his laptop. “We noticed a pretty big space in our driveway.”

Anna exhaled through her nose as she said, “I was just going to get it, actually.”

“Well if you want to keep it,” her father said, finally glancing up at her, “maybe you should try acting with more responsibility. You wouldn’t want us to lose our trust in you.”

“Right. It won’t happen again,” Anna said, a cold look on her face as she picked up her things and left.

She got back into her room and placed the objects on the counter, shaking Kat awake.

“Hey Kat, I’m back. C’mon wake up,” she said softly as Kat groaned and slowly opened her eyes. “You’re gonna want to take this now, rather than later. Trust me.”

She poured two tablets into Kat’s outstretched hand and handed her the water. Kat quickly swallowed them and handed the glass back to Anna before falling back onto her pillow with a mumbled, “Thanks,”

“Yeah. See you later,” Anna said, smiling as Kat hummed in response.

She grabbed her car keys and the energy bar, walked outside, and gave a huge sigh. For a moment, she stood there just watching her breath turn white in the cold morning air. Once the cloud had dissipated, she opened up the energy bar and munched on it as she began to walk towards the woods. At the entrance of the forest, the walk turned into a slow jog before turning into a run as she settled into a nice pace and let all the tension in her body relax.

Usually, Anna didn’t particularly care for alone time, but for the once she felt like she actually needed it. She wasn’t exactly great at unpacking her emotions, and the other day had been a lot, to say the least. The more that she ran, the more she could feel the thoughts settling in her head.

Mostly, it was a mixture of anger and fear. Anger at herself for not being able to protect people, and fear that she would lose her friends and family. That she wouldn’t be able to stop what was happening. Anna had always prided herself on her ability to keep a level head, but lately she couldn’t stop the emotions clawing at her chest.

She ran with these thoughts rushing through her head, only pulled back into reality as she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. Lifting it up, she realized that an hour had passed as she read a series of text messages from Anne to their group.

**Anne Boleyn**: FUCK

**Anne Boleyn**: why did no one remind me

**Anne Boleyn**: that i had DETENTION TODAY

**Catherine de Aragon**: Oh right from punching someone

**Catherine de Aragon**: Honestly I completely forgot that ever happened

**Anna von Cleves**: Shit bro sorry

**Anna von Cleves**: I forgot too

**Anna von Cleves**: It’s been a wild week

**Anne Boleyn**: valid but also

**Anne Boleyn**: FUCK

**Catherine de Aragon**: What happens if you miss?

**Anne Boleyn**: in school suspension ugh

**Anna von Cleves**: Wtf that’s bullshit

**Anne Boleyn**: the worst part is now my parents know i got detention …

**Anne Boleyn**: the only reason im awake rn is bc my dad called me to give me a lecture

**Anna von Cleves**: Your dad called you? You’re not home?

**Anne Boleyn**: no jane let me crash at her place

**Catherine de Aragon**: How did your parents not know already? Don’t they have to sign a permission slip or something?

**Anne Boleyn**: umm

**Anne Boleyn**: why in the world would i actually give it to them …

**Anne Boleyn**: i forged their signatures obvs

**Anna von Cleves**: Lmao

**Catherine de Aragon**: Okay I guess that’s fair

**Anne Boleyn**: omg wait did you just validate me

**Anne Boleyn**: wow you read it here first folks

**Anne Boleyn**: catherine de aragon supports forgery

**Anne Boleyn**: and lying to school administration

**Anna von Cleves**: Wow Catherine

**Anna von Cleves**: I’m appalled you would say such things

**Catherine de Aragon**: I hate both of you

**Catherine de Aragon**: I was going to offer to talk to the principal for Anne but I guess I take it back

**Anne Boleyn**: wait what

**Anna von Cleves**: You mean you’d convince him to bend the rules for Anne?

**Anne Boleyn**: how the hell would that work

**Catherine de Aragon**: We go to the same church and I help babysit his kids sometimes

**Anne Boleyn**: :o

**Catherine de Aragon**: Plus I’m generally known as a good student so

**Catherine de Aragon**: If I asked him to I’m pretty sure he’d at least consider it

**Anne Boleyn**: are u being real rn?

**Anna von Cleves**: Wow you read it here first

**Anna von Cleves**: Catherine de Aragon supports nepotism

**Catherine de Aragon**: I swear I’m going to kill both of you

**Anne Boleyn**: wait wait wait

**Anne Boleyn**: catherine pls

**Anne Boleyn**: i promise to stop annoying you for forever if you do this for me

**Catherine de Aragon**: I highly doubt you could manage that, but I’ll talk to him tomorrow

**Anne Boleyn**: i literally owe you my life tysm

**Catherine de Aragon**: Yeah you do

**Anne Boleyn**: ok anyway imma pass out again

**Anne Boleyn**: i gotta sleep off this bitch of a hangover

**Anne Boleyn**: night y’all

**Catherine de Aragon**: It’s morning …

**Catherine de Aragon**: Honestly I’m kind of surprised you’re up too Anna. Didn’t you drink as much as them?

**Anna von Cleves**: Please I’m no lightweight

**Anna von Cleves**: Besides it’s like what Cathy said about higher tolerances and all

**Anna von Cleves**: How is she btw?

**Catherine de Aragon**: I don’t know she’s still passed out

**Catherine de Aragon**: I forced her to drink plenty of water last night though so I’m sure she’s fine

**Anna von Cleves**: Oh cool

**Anna von Cleves**: Damn I should’ve done that for Kat

**Catherine de Aragon**: Don’t worry I’m sure you were preoccupied with being drunk yourself

**Catherine de Aragon**: It’s just a headache. She’ll survive

**Anna von Cleves**: But will I survive when she complains about it later …

**Catherine de Aragon**: Ah I get it now

**Catherine de Aragon**: I’ll pray for your safety for when she wakes up

**Anna von Cleves**: Tyty

**Anna von Cleves**: At this rate we’ll all owe you our lives

**Catherine de Aragon**: As it should be 🙂

Anna snorted, locking her phone and slipping it back into her pocket. She really did love them, and the idea that she wouldn’t be able to protect them scared her. She had no way to predict what could come, and no amount of unpacking those emotions could make her feel any less afraid.

She walked the rest of the way out of the woods, taking a deep breath and looking up at the treetops. The light had started to filter through the leaves as the sun slowly rose in the sky. She continued to slowly walk back to the park where she’d left her car, unlocking and entering it once she arrived.

She let out a huge sigh and leaned her head back on the headrest, closing her eyes. The silence of the car was different from the sound of nature outside. Everything was muffled, and for once she felt truly alone. She sat there, listening to the sound of herself breathing.

Then after a moment, she opened her eyes, turned on the ignition, and drove back home.

\---

By the afternoon, everyone had mostly gotten over their hangovers, and so it was decided that they should meet back up at the Tower to finally face the dreaded news.

“We look like a mess,” Catherine said, looking around at how half of the team was wearing the exact same outfits as the other day, except now Anne was wearing sunglasses.

“In my defense,” Anne said, pushing her sunglasses up her nose, “when don’t I look like a mess?”

“Really? You consider that a defense of yourself?” Catherine questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Is she wrong though?” Anna said with a grin.

Jane shook her head sadly, though her face had a small smile on it. “I was going to defend you Anne, but you’ve kind of made it impossible.”

“Ouch,” Kat said, biting back a laugh. “You know it’s bad when even Jane can’t help but burn you.”

“Do you see me right now?” Anne said flatly, her facial expression remaining unchanging. “Does this look like the face of a person that can be hurt by mere words? I have ascended beyond such petty concerns.”

“In other words, you’re too hungover to care,” Catherine said.

“Perhaps,” was the only concession that Anne would make.

The group continued their conversation as they walked, mostly picking on Anne while Jane did give a few remarks in defense. Once they reached the Tower though, the conversation quickly died out.

They entered and walked through to the main room where the Ladies in Waiting were collected around the table. The four of them were having some kind of conversation that stopped once the six girls entered the room.

“Hello,” Maria said, a nervous smile on her face. “Did you all sleep well?”

They all looked at each other.

“More or less,” Catherine said with a wry smile.

“That’s good to hear,” Maria said, her smile brightening just a little. After a pause she continued, “Well, I guess you want to know what we found out. Basically, we’ve concluded that yes, Eldon is trying to open the barrier. We think that’s why he was in the woods when you first encountered his monsters. He was trying to find the Coins before you did.”

“With the Coins he easily would have been able to open up the barrier since they were the objects used to make the barrier in the first place,” Joan explained. “Without that option, he’s resorted to drawing magic directly from different places of power in hopes of overpowering the magic in the barrier.”

“Those places of power were the locations he targeted over the past week,” Bessie said, and she pointed at what appeared to be the image of map of the town floating over the center table. “Each ‘attack’ was actually him absorbing the magic in those places.”

“Yeah, and he’s been drawing a _lot_ of magic. We don’t know how much exactly, but we think he’s pretty close to being able to break out,” Maggie said with a grimace. “If he did, he would get all of his original power back, and with him, all of the other Felgarde would be released too.”

“That’s … not good,” Anna said with a wince.

“No. It isn’t,” Maggie agreed.

“So what do we do?” Catherine asked.

“That’s the thing, we don’t really have a good answer,” Joan said with a pained look on her face. “There’s two options, and you’re not going to like either of them.”

“I’m assuming one is to kill Henry?” Anne said bluntly. The others looked at her in shock, but she simply shrugged. “Am I wrong?”

“No, you’re not,” Joan said with a sigh.

“So then what’s the other option?” Catherine asked.

“You could let him open the barrier,” Maria said, already wincing at the option. “Once that happens, Eldon will get his own corporeal form, and you can try to kill him then without having to harm Henry.”

“So basically our options are kill Henry or doom the world,” Cathy said with narrowed eyes.

“You don’t sound too optimistic about the second option,” Maggie said nervously.

“Well considering the last Rangers literally sacrificed their lives to not even kill him but just trap him, I get the feeling that if we fought him, we would almost certainly lose,” Cathy said, crossing her arms. “And you’ve all talked plenty about how many of our predecessors died at his hands.”

“Also, wouldn’t that let all of the other demons out too?” Anne asked.

“Yeah well, like we said. You’re not going to like either of the options,” Bessie said with an apologetic grimace.

“Wait, isn’t there a third solution?” Jane asked. “What if we destroy Henry’s Coin? Then Eldon won’t be able to control him, right?”

“Yes, but it’s not that simple,” Bessie said. “Do you ever notice where the Coins go when you morph into your armor? They disappear into it. If Henry is ever threatened, all Eldon has to do is summon his armor, and the Coin would be gone.”

“And the only way you can force someone to un-morph is to kill them,” Maggie said.

“Actually, I’m confused as to why Henry even has a Coin from Eldon,” Anna said. “I thought you said that the original Rangers gave their lives to create them. How come Eldon was able to make one without dying?”

“Because our friends didn’t just make the Coins. They poured their magic into the legacy of the Coins so that they could be passed down to a new generation of Rangers along with the Tower and us four,” Joan explained. “Eldon, on the other hand, created a Coin to allow a specific human to tap into his powers. That means it’s not transferrable. If Eldon or Henry were to die, the Coin would lose its power, and no one else could use it.”

“Can we just use the magic in the Coins to just reseal the barrier?” Cathy asked.

“The Coins already used up a lot of magic creating the barrier in the first place. We don’t think that they have the power to counter whatever Eldon is attempting,” Joan said.

“Besides, even if the Coins had the power, none of you have any experience with magic. All of you only learned about magic a week ago. I don’t think you’d be even able to cast that level of magic if you tried,” Maria pointed out.

Cathy sighed in defeat. “So there really is no other way?”

The Ladies in Waiting shook their head. The six Rangers looked around at each other in silence.

“So what do we do?” Kat asked. None of them had the answer, and they looked to the Ladies in Waiting, desperate and hoping for an answer.

“We don’t know,” Joan said softly, shaking her head.

\---

In the end, they had a short training session though no one’s heart was really in it. The Ladies in Waiting had ended it early out of pity, telling them to get some rest and that they could meet up the next day. No one had much hope that the answers would be clearer tomorrow though.

“This SUCKS,” Anne shouted into the woods. “Who decided that a bunch of teenagers are the ones best equipped to deal with this?”

“The Coins did. Or you could argue the original Rangers did, depending on how you interpret this magic stuff,” Cathy said.

“Yeah, well maybe the original Rangers should rethink their logic,” Anne grumbled.

“But who _would_ be best equipped to deal with this?” Catherine said. “This isn’t exactly a situation that anyone could possibly be prepared for.”

“Literally anyone other than Henry’s exes would probably be better at this,” Anne said, throwing up her hands. “Then this stupid decision wouldn’t be so difficult.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Catherine said with a frown. “I think anyone would have a tough time deciding whether or not to kill him. It’s not exactly like there’s a right answer.”

“Isn’t there?” Jane asked softly, holding her arms across her chest. “Wouldn’t most people say it’s better to sacrifice one to save many?”

“Yes, but …” Catherine hesitated. “It’s just like the famous trolley problem. Most people when asked would switch tracks to kill one instead of five, but people’s choices change depending on the variant of the problem. Even when you keep the same principle of sacrificing one life to save multiple others, it’s clear that the circumstances matter when it comes to how people perceive morality. That’s why philosophers have been discussing the dilemma for over a century. There’s no clear-cut answer.”

“Since when have you been an expert in morality?” Anne asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, I happen to be taking Philosophy this semester, but that’s so not the point of what I was trying to say.” Catherine said, rolling her eyes. “I’m saying that experts in morality don’t exist. That there is no right or wrong answer.”

“Okay but like, if there’s no right or wrong, then how do we decide what to do?” Kat asked.

There was a pause.

“I don’t want to kill Henry,” Jane said, looking down at the ground.

After a pause, Kat softly echoed the sentiment, “Me neither.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Anna sighed, “but I just don’t know what else we can do.”

There was silence as they finally reached the edge of the trees, staring at their cars parked in a row. Everyone was lost in thought about what they wanted to do, what they needed to do, and what they should do.

“Whatever happens, I just don’t want to regret it,” Cathy murmured softly, barely loud enough for the others to pick up. She then let out a sigh. “But I don’t know if that’s possible.”

The other nodded in silence before separating to go home. There really wasn’t much else to say.

\---

At 7 o’clock in the morning, Anna woke up to the sound of her alarm, feeling more than a bit tired as she turned it off and got ready for her morning run. She had had trouble falling asleep last night because of the Eldon/Henry problem, and combined with their late night on Friday, they were adding up to a bit of a sleep deficit.

Still, Anna was adamant that she keep up her schedule. Things were already falling apart enough. At the very least, she could have this stability in her life.

Halfway through her run though, she saw Anne hanging out on the cliff that hung over the entrance to the Tower. Anna’s usual route didn’t pass by the place, but ever since her speed and endurance had increased, she had expanded her run to explore a lot more of the forest than before.

Anne clearly hadn’t noticed her as she stared off into the distance, her feet dangling and kicking up a bit every so often. Anna noticed a puff of smoke rise from Anne’s mouth in the distance, and she shook her head.

Anna rounded the cliff, approaching Anne from behind. She wasn’t trying to be subtle, and soon Anne turned around to face her, having heard the footsteps.

“Thought you said you don’t usually smoke,” Anna said, tilting her head with smile on her face.

Anne gave a small huff. “I swear I don’t. How do you always catch me at a bad time?”

“Must be a talent of mine,” Anna said, dropping to the ground next to Anne and swinging her legs over the ledge. “Though I gotta say, two times in a week doesn’t feel like a once-in-a-while kind of thing.”

“Yeah, well it’s been a fucked-up week, okay?” Anne grumbled. “And it’s really not a regular thing, honest. Sometimes my dad’ll forget his pack around the house, and I’ll swipe one, but it’s not like I need it or anything.”

“Mhm,” Anne hummed.

“Besides, don’t we have super regeneration now? Can we even get lung cancer?” Anne asked.

Anna shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe not.”

“Exactly, which means it shouldn’t be a big deal if I have one cigarette every now and then,” Anne said defensively.

“I’m not trying to judge you,” Anna said, looking directly into Anne’s eyes until Anne’s facial expression softened.

“Oh. Okay,” Anne said with a sigh.

“I just want to make sure you’re taking care of yourself,” Anna said with a reassuring smile. “And you’re right. It has been a fucked-up week. But you know you can talk to me about it if you want, right?”

Anne continued to stare at Anna for a moment before she sighed, her shoulders slumping ever so slightly.

“What are you even doing out here?” she asked softly.

“I was on my morning run.”

“Oh, cool. So basically the polar opposite of what I was doing health-wise,” Anne said, cracking a small smile.

“Kind of. Though my morning run _is_ a regular habit, so not the complete opposite,” Anna said, bumping Anne with her shoulder. After a pause she asked, “What about you? What are you doing out here? It seems a bit early in the day to take a smoke break.”

“I only meant to come out here to clear my head, not smoke,” Anne confessed, staring at the half-finished cigarette in her hand, “but as I was leaving, I saw the pack on the counter, and I just grabbed a couple without thinking.” Anne sighed and crushed the cigarette against the ground. “It was stupid.”

“I get it,” Anna said, shrugging as Anne looked at her in surprise. “Not that I’ve ever smoked, but it’s like … when your head is filled with too many thoughts, you feel like need to do something or anything to get it to stop.”

“Yeah,” Anne whispered.

“If you ever get that way, you can always text me,” Anna said. “I swear I’m way better at stress relief than a cigarette.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Anne said with a huff of laughter.

Anna nodded. There was a moment of silence before she asked, “Do you want to talk about whatever you were thinking of?”

Anne hesitated, looking down at her feet. She swung, kicking them up a bit and letting them thud back into the wall. They sat in silence for a moment as she gathered the words to speak. “I think I might be a bad person.”

Anna slowly turned to look at Anne but didn’t speak.

“I just don’t think I’d feel that guilty if we killed Henry,” Anne said, avoiding eye contact and continuing to stare at her legs. “I think it’d be worth it. To kill him to save everyone else.”

Anna narrowed eyes as she slowly said, “I don’t see how that makes you a bad person.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure a good person wouldn’t be okay with killing another human being,” Anne muttered.

“And I’m pretty sure a good person would be concerned about saving the world,” Anna said, tilting her head at Anne.

Anne turned to look at Anna with a rueful smile as she said, “I’m pretty sure any person would be concerned about that.”

Anna looked at Anne thoughtfully, watching a combination of fear and sadness twist in Anne’s facial expression. “I think you’re a better person than you give yourself credit for. I think you care about being a good person more than any bad person would.”

“But that’s not enough, just to want to be a good person,” Anne said, her eyebrows narrowing even further. “You have to do good things too, and I—” Anne cut herself off before restarting, “How are you supposed to know? That you’re doing the right thing? I just—I feel like I can’t do anything without hurting someone else.” Her voice cracked at the end of the sentence.

Anna frowned at that. “Well, we’re always hurting someone else, aren’t we? Every choice we make has good consequences and bad ones. I think you just have to go with what feels right and rely on your friends to tell you when you’re in the wrong.”

Anne let out a huge sigh. “You make it sound so easy.”

“Yeah,” Anna said. “Well sometimes it is that easy. Not all the time, obviously, but sometimes all you have to do is trust yourself.”

“Trust yourself,” Anne echoed back softly.

“And trust your friends,” Anne said. She slid back and stood up before holding out her hand. “Now come on. You’ve clearly been thinking about this too much, and I’ve had enough of this place.”

Anne looked surprised for a moment before her face relaxed into the hint of a smile. She spun around and grabbed Anna’s hand, letting Anna pull her up. “You got something better in mind?”

Anna wasn’t sure that Anne had truly taken to heart what she had said, but either way, she knew that letting Anne overthink it by herself was the wrong move. What she was sure of was that sometimes a good distraction was what you needed to feel better.

“Yeah, dude. I’m taking you back to my place. Let’s blow off some steam by playing some video games. I’ll even let you win a couple rounds.”

Anne laughed as she gained the familiar twinkle in her eye when faced with a challenge. “Oh, you’ll _let _me? By the end you’ll be begging me for mercy.”

Anna grinned as they taunted each other on the walk back to her car. It was comforting to know that they could still be themselves even in these times. It was a nice reminder that yes, they were still allowed to be happy.

\---

Catherine liked to say that she got along with her parents. She had always looked up to them as a kid, wanting to follow in their footsteps. She had worked hard her whole life without needing them to push her, and they had always respected her, which Catherine was incredibly grateful for.

Over the past week, even when Catherine had started skipping family dinners and coming back home later than usual, they hadn’t said a word about it. They knew that whatever it was, there was no possible way that Catherine would get involved in something dangerous, or at least, that’s what they thought.

Of course, even the most understanding parents would be disturbed after a week of a sudden change in behavior with no explanation, and finally after church that Sunday, her mother decided to confront her about it.

After getting home, she had packed her stuff, planning on meeting up with Cathy and texting the others to see if they wanted to do homework together. It only made sense since they were mostly all in the same classes.

As she began to head out, she called out to her parents, “I’m heading out, okay?”

“Catalina, espera,” her mom called out. “Ven aquí, por favor. I want to talk to you.”

Catherine frowned, walking back towards the kitchen where her mother sat at the table with a cup of tea, her work papers scattered in front of her.

“Is something wrong?” Catherine asked.

“Well,” her mother started, which immediately tipped Catherine off that indeed, something was wrong, “I heard some things at church today, and I wanted to … check on you.”

“What things?” Catherine said, furrowing her brows.

Her mother sighed. “Some of the ladies at church are saying they’ve seen you hanging with some new friends,” her mom said, trying to start off easy. “And when I went to find you, I overheard you speaking with your principal about Anne Boleyn …”

“I’m still not seeing the problem,” Catherine asked, crossing her arms, though she knew what her mom was going to follow it up with.

“Just … maybe you shouldn’t be around those people,” her mother said. “I’ve heard many bad things about them, and I don’t want them dragging you down.”

“They’re not dragging me down,” Catherine protested.

“Then why have you been out so much lately? And why did you come home so late Friday night? You haven’t even been telling me or your father what you’ve been up to,” her mother argued back.

Catherine opened and closed her mouth, unsure of what excuse she could possibly say to justify it. Instead, the words, “Don’t you trust me?” slipped out of her mouth, sounding more hurt than she had intended.

Her mother’s face softened. “Catalina, of course I do. I’m just worried.”

“Well you don’t have to be. I promise you, they’re good people,” Catherine said earnestly. “The things that everyone says about them are wrong. They’re … they’re the best friends I think I’ve ever had.”

Catherine was almost surprised at how genuinely she meant what she had said. She’d only really known them for a week, and yet she trusted them with her life. In fact, she trusted them with so much more than that.

Her mother searched Catherine’s face for any hint that something might be wrong, but Catherine’s face was filled with nothing but certainty. Eventually, her mom relented and sighed, letting her face relax. She gave Catherine a good attempt at a smile, though the creases in her face still belied some of her worry.

“Okay,” her mother said softly. “I believe you.”

Catherine relaxed a little at that.

“Though if you need to spend so much time with them, at least invite them for dinner,” her mother said. “I think I should get to know these good friends of yours.”

Catherine smiled at that. “Yeah, okay. I’ll ask them about it sometime.”

Her mother nodded and took a deep breath. “I’ll let you go then. Please take care?”

“Thanks, ma. I will.”

“And Catalina?” her mom said, pausing a moment as Catherine stared at her expectantly. “Te quiero mucho.”

Catherine’s face softened as she let a smile form, her eyes crinkling slightly. “Te quiero también.”

She turned and headed to her car, slipping her phone out of her pocket to send a quick message out to everyone asking if they wanted to do homework together before training.

As their responses quickly came back, she couldn’t help but imagine her mother meeting them. She knew without a doubt that her mom would absolutely love them, and the thought filled Catherine with an ache in her chest. It was a good kind of ache that said that she wanted these people to stay in her life for a long time.

In the back of her mind, she tucked away a reminder to invite them over once the whole Eldon situation had been dealt with. It felt almost like a promise to herself that there would be an after. One that would be everything they wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just gotta say that smoking is bad kids! It's a really hard addiction (as all addictions are very hard), and 10/10 would not recommend. Just wanna make sure y'all know I am not endorsing it, and I hope you all are taking care of yourselves.
> 
> Also is it too obvious that I really really want them to be happy? I'm already imagining fluff for after the whole thing ends lmao. Honestly I can't believe that I have to write the in between from now until then. Wild and wack.


	15. and you can't stop me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M BACK Y'ALL WTHECK IS UP
> 
> Sorry for disappearing for literal months lol. I won't lie I had a bit of a crisis on how to finish this fic, but I (kinda) have an ending planned for real now, so hopefully I can make it!! Sorry to all my old readers who have forgotten about this fic lmao. I hope that I can end it satisfyingly and do it justice
> 
> tw: violence, mention of blood (the fight in this chapter is a bit more intense than previous chapters so watch out for that)

It was Monday again, and with it came the usual groans and grumbles of sleep-deprived teens. Anna leaned against her car hood as the others stood around her, chatting while they waited for school to begin. They had all deemed Anna’s parking spot as their gathering place if only because Anna and Kat were usually the earliest to school out of all of them.

Two figures, however, sat on the asphalt below the others. Both Cathy and Anne were seated together, furiously looking over and copying down Anna’s history notes onto their own study sheets. Or at least, Cathy was furiously copying them down while Anne did the same at a much more leisurely pace.

“Is this a usual morning for you?” Anna asked amusedly, noting that despite the frantic speed of Cathy’s hand, her face betrayed no sign of panic. “I kinda expected it from Anne, but not you.”

“These are stressful times. Don’t I get a free pass?” Cathy responded, her pace not slowing down for even a moment.

“Sadly, I don’t think our teachers will accept the end of the world as an excuse,” Catherine said with a humorous smile.

“Yeah, even if they did believe it,” Jane said, her face scrunching a little in annoyance. “As long as you’re alive, teachers expect you to prioritize their classes over anything else. I mean, I literally gave birth and am raising a child, and they barely give me a pass for that.”

“That’s such bullshit though,” Anne said, dropping her pencil and leaning back. “You know what? I declare that we should hold a strike on homework and flunk out of school in protest.”

“Right, cause they’ll care _so _much if six students suddenly drop out,’” Catherine scoffed.

“Speaking of catching up on homework,” Anna asked, turning to Kat, “shouldn’t you be doing yours too? I know for a fact you haven’t finished all of your Chem homework.”

“Yeah, yeah I remember,” Kat said, waving her hand at Anna. “Don’t worry, I’ll do it in homeroom.” She then turned to smile sweetly at Anne and Cathy. “Because unlike _some_ people, I only procrastinate on homework that’s due _after _homeroom, not before. Work smarter, not harder.”

Anne scrunched her nose and flipped off a snickering Kat while Catherine looked between Jane and Anna as she sighed good-naturedly. “Are we the only responsible ones here who actually do their homework the night before school?”

Jane blushed and looked down.

“Don’t look at me. I still have my Physics homework to do,” she mumbled. “Science isn’t exactly my strong suit.”

Anne cackled gleefully on the ground while Catherine looked shocked. She turned to Anna for some kind of support, and Anna happily obliged.

“Don’t worry, Catherine,” Anna said with a comforting smile, reaching over and placing a hand on her shoulder. “At least you still have me.”

Catherine gave Anna a solemn look and reached her hand across her chest to place on top of Anna’s. “It’s us against the world isn’t it?”

Anna nodded as she echoed, “Us against the world.”

They stared dead serious into each other’s eyes until Kat rolled her eyes and said, “Oh my God, you two are _so_ dramatic.”

Anna broke first, her mouth widening into a grin, which caused Catherine to break immediately as her shoulders shook with silent laughter.

Suddenly, the warning bell went off to signal that class would begin in 15 minutes, causing Cathy to swear under her breath.

“Whatever. I got most of the notes down,” she muttered as she quickly packed up her papers.

“I didn’t,” Anne said cheerfully, stuffing her notes in her backpack and quickly standing up.

Cathy murmured a quick, “Thanks,” to Anna, flashing a small smile as she handed Anna back her papers. Then, the six of them walked together towards the entrance of the school, rearranging themselves into their respective groups as they headed to their first period. Kat was the first to peel off from the group, heading to her class alone, followed by Anna and Cathy who split off to head to theirs.

Catherine turned to Anne and said, “I’m assuming since you’re still with us, you no longer have your in-school suspension?”

At the mention of that, Anne’s face lit up, and she grinned. “Yeah, the principal called my parents last night and said I was getting a one-time pass for missing detention. I seriously owe you one.” Then, Anne smirked and leaned her head in to whisper loudly, “Hey, you think you could use your influence to get him to cancel the rest of my detention?”

Catherine gave Anne an overly sweet smile and said, “Don’t push it.”

“Yeah, Anne. Haven’t you heard of the saying ‘With great power comes great responsibility?’” Jane said in a faux-admonishing tone. “Catherine needs to use this on serious things. Like giving me a free pass on my Physics homework.”

“Not you too,” Catherine said, giving Jane a flat look. “It’s not like I have the ability to sway every single teacher in this school.”

“You say that, but I have my suspicions,” Jane said, staring at Catherine with an eyebrow raised.

Catherine shook her head as she said, “Unbelievable. I think that Anne’s been a bad influence on you.”

“Aw, don’t be jealous Catherine,” Anne said, grinning cheekily at Catherine. She placed her elbow on Catherine’s shoulder. “One of these days, I’ll be just as bad an influence on you too. I promise.”

“You’ll certainly try,” Catherine snorted as she shrugged off Anne’s arm, and they split up to head to their respective desks.

Though the three of them had managed to keep up fairly high spirits throughout the morning, their moods soon dropped once they sat down at their desks. As they looked around the class, they immediately knew that something was wrong as they looked between each other with worried glances. It wasn’t until the bell went off for the start of class though, that Catherine, Jane, and Anne knew for sure that trouble was coming.

**Catherine de Aragon**: Henry isn’t here

**Catherine Parr**: what do you mean?

**Jane Seymour**: He’s not in first period

**Anna von Cleves**: Shit for real?

**Katherine Howard**: What do we do?

**Anna von Cleves**: I’ll let the liw know maybe they can keep an eye out or something

**Anne Boleyn**: this fucking sucks

For the first time in weeks, Anne couldn’t sleep at all in first period, and if that wasn’t a clear sign of impending doom, she didn’t know what was.

\---

Despite their worst fears, the rest of the school day went without incident. Still, they knew that they couldn’t relax yet. Kat notified the others that Henry hadn’t shown up for football practice either, so all the Rangers went on high alert. While Anna and Kat still had to go to practice and Jane needed to pick up and take care of Edward, the others staked out different locations of “magical interest,” that Eldon would be most drawn to, according to Joan.

Catherine couldn’t have been more visibly nervous if she had tried. Her history textbook lay in her lap completely ignored as her eyes darted around at every new person that appeared near the church she had been stationed at. Already anxious about the possibility of spotting Henry, the odd looks that people gave her as they noticed her parked outside the church certainly didn’t help. She popped her phone out of her pocket as she tried to calm herself down.

**Catherine de Aragon**: I feel like a creep just parked in front of this church

**Catherine de Aragon**: It’s not even my church

**Anne Boleyn**: yeah well at least ur not loitering in front of a rando gas station

**Anne Boleyn**: i feel like any second now a dudes gonna come out to yell at me

**Catherine Parr**: lmao yeah you two definitely got the short end of the stick

**Catherine Parr**: i’m just sipping on a nice cup of coffee in this wonderfully air-conditioned cafe

**Anne Boleyn**: fuck u

**Catherine Parr**: :)

**Catherine de Aragon**: Yeah well I guess it’s for the best I didn’t do the cafe

**Catherine de Aragon**: I don’t think my nerves could’ve handled any caffeine

**Catherine Parr**: maybe that’s just cause your nerves are weak unlike mine

**Anne Boleyn**: yeah catherine just stop sleeping and you can get strong like us

**Catherine de Aragon**: You two disgust me. The others would have backed me up

**Anne Boleyn**: sorry bud but ur stuck with us

**Catherine Parr**: love you <3

**Catherine de Aragon**: :/

\---

Cathy sighed as she shook her leg, staring around at the people coming and going from the coffee shop. It was a place that she used to frequent a lot to get some writing done, but she hadn’t been back in a long time, having moved to new locations to find new inspiration. Now that she was here, she had pulled out her notebook in the hopes that some ideas might spring forth, but couldn’t seem to focus enough to get anything concrete on the page.

Her mind kept drifting back to thoughts of seeing Henry, and every now and then, she swore she saw Henry in someone’s passing face before she realized she was mistaken. She tapped her phone awake and shot a message to the group.

**Catherine Parr**: what are we supposed to do if we see him?

**Catherine de Aragon**: Why? Is he there?

**Catherine Parr**: no i’m just not sure of the protocol

**Anne Boleyn**: just walk straight up and punch him in the face

**Catherine Parr**: lol ok sure

**Catherine de Aragon**: Please don’t

**Catherine de Aragon**: Just let us know and wait until everyone’s there so we can stop him as a team

**Anne Boleyn**: minus three

**Anne Boleyn**: very inconsiderate of anna and kat to be good at sports

**Anne Boleyn**: and for jane to have a child

**Catherine de Aragon**: Well if we see him, we should still alert them through the coins

**Catherine Parr**: what if he just never shows up

**Anne Boleyn**: then ill track him down

**Anne Boleyn**: and beat him up for making us sit out here for nothing

**Catherine Parr**: yeah i’ll join you in that

**Catherine Parr**: this kind of sucks

**Catherine de Aragon**: I agree

\---

As soon as Anna, Kat, and Jane got free from their responsibilities, they checked in with the others and got their own stakeout assignments. It was already getting pretty late, the sun low in the sky, and they weren’t sure if Henry would show up at all or how late they were supposed to wait for him.

Anne pushed off against the ground, standing up to lean against the wall of the gas station store. She’d been alternating between sitting and standing every time her butt or feet started to feel sore. She stared into the distance, tapping her foot along to the beat of the song playing through her earbuds. Already feeling her feet getting sore from standing too long, she huffed, slumped against the side of the building, and slid back down. Without even thinking, she pulled out her phone and started typing a message to the chat.

**Anne Boleyn**: im still salty

**Anne Boleyn**: how come im the only one with a shitty location

**Catherine Parr**: this again?

**Anna von Cleves**: Hey it’s not like I love my location either

**Anna von Cleves**: I do not want to see the kind of people who rent motel rooms at this hour …

**Anne Boleyn**: yah well at least u have a car

**Anne Boleyn**: im just sitting OUTSIDE on my ASS

**Katherine Howard**: Ok but like Jane and I are also outside?

**Anne Boleyn**: yeah but at least the skate park has actual benches

**Anne Boleyn**: and jane is at a G A R D E N

**Anne Boleyn**: so dont fuckin talk to me

**Jane Seymour**: I’d say sorry but I’m not really sorry :)

**Anne Boleyn**: -_-

**Catherine de Aragon**: Lol go off Jane

**Anne Boleyn**: whatever i call the garden next time

**Anne Boleyn**: jane can sit in front of this nasty ass gas station since she actually has a car

**Jane Seymour**: Haha fair enough

\---

Anna sat in her car and stared out her window at the small motel in front of her. The radio was playing softly in the background as she hummed along. There wasn’t too much activity around, though the later it got the more adults she saw checking in. It all felt a bit surreal to her, like something was supposed to be happening, and yet she just sat listening to the top hits of the week. Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out to see.

**Anne Boleyn**: sooo is now a good time to discuss how were gonna split up the hw tn

**Catherine de Aragon**: Why are you assuming that we’d split it up?

**Anne Boleyn**: uhhh bc this sucks and i dont wanna do it?

**Katherine Howard**: Ugh you’re all so lucky you’re in the same year

**Katherine Howard**: I have to do mine on my own :/

**Anne Boleyn**: ill do ur chem hw for you if you do some of my hw lmao

**Anne Boleyn**: dont u like history? tbh u could probs do my apush hw

**Catherine Parr**: i’ll do our spanish too if you do apush

**Katherine Howard**: Ok deal lol. It’s just notes right?

**Anne Boleyn**: yup ill send you a pic of the study sheet

**Anna von Cleves**: @Catherine de Aragon want to split pre calc with me?

**Catherine de Aragon**: Why are you dragging me into this

**Anna von Cleves**: It’s just a bit of team bonding :) didn’t want you to be left out

**Jane Seymour**: Wait Anna can you do our physics? I’ll take the pre calc instead

**Anna von Cleves**: Sure

**Jane Seymour**: So are we splitting pre calc @Catherine de Aragon?

**Catherine de Aragon**: Ugh this goes against all of my morals

**Anne Boleyn**: im not hearing a no

**Catherine de Aragon**: Fine I’ll take half the pre calc. Happy?

**Anne Boleyn**: hehe told you id be a bad influence on you

**Catherine de Aragon**: But don’t share any of your homework with me.

**Catherine de Aragon**: You can cheat off me, but I refuse to cheat off of you

**Anne Boleyn**: :o

**Katherine Howard**: :o

**Catherine Parr**: we bent her morals but we didn’t break them …

**Katherine Howard**: It’s times like these that I remember why I used to fear Catherine

**Catherine Parr**: used to? i still fear her lmao

**Anna von Cleves**: Same

**Jane Seymour**: Same

**Catherine de Aragon**: As you all should

\---

Kat heaved a big sigh, dropping her pencil down and stretching her back. She’d been working on a bit of the APUSH study guide that Anne had sent after, but as much as she liked history, she was tired of doing homework. Besides, it was hard to focus on doing the homework when she had to look up every other second to make sure that Henry hadn’t suddenly shown up. The energy it took to switch her focus between the two tasks had exhausted her.

She turned her attention to the skate park, watching the occasional attempts of new tricks that often ended in failure. It was in the middle of a sigh that she heard her phone go off.

**Anne Boleyn**: this is so boring

**Katherine Howard**: I know same

**Catherine de Aragon**: Would you rather see Henry show up?

**Catherine Parr**: ok but to be fair this is pretty dull catherine

**Catherine Parr**: i’ve never had to sit in a cafe for this long before

**Catherine Parr**: you start running out of things to write about after a while

**Anne Boleyn**: ok lets spice things up

**Anne Boleyn**: who do you think will spot him first ive got ten on catherine

**Catherine de Aragon**: Seriously?

**Anne Boleyn**: i just think itd be ironic if demon henry showed up to church lol

**Catherine de Aragon**: No I mean you’re seriously placing bets at a time like this? Don’t you think it’s inappropriate?

**Catherine Parr**: i bet ten on anna

**Catherine de Aragon**: …

**Anne Boleyn**: l m a o

**Katherine Howard**: I’ll bet on Anne

**Anne Boleyn**: hehe thanks kat <3

**Anna von Cleves**: I guess I’ll do Jane?

**Catherine de Aragon**: You’re all ridiculous

**Catherine de Aragon**: Fine I bet on Cathy

**Anne Boleyn**: nice nice lol

**Anne Boleyn**: what about you jane

**Anne Boleyn**: you gotta bet on kat to even it out

**Anne Boleyn**: please jane

**Katherine Howard**: Jane?

**Jane Seymour**: I see him

**Catherine de Aragon**: You mean Henry?

**Jane Seymour**: He’s here

**Anne Boleyn**: shit

**Anna von Cleves**: Don’t engage ok? Wait for us

**Catherine de Aragon**: We’ll be there soon

\---

Jane could barely hear anything over the pounding of her heart in her ears. The peaceful trickling of the water fountain in the center of the garden belied the fear that Jane felt. She peeked out from the bush she had hidden behind to watch Henry walk through the garden. His pace was slow and careful as his eyes swept the garden in search of anyone else. He hadn’t noticed her yet, but she knew that given the direction he was headed, he would soon if she didn’t leave. And yet she couldn’t move.

It was something about the expression on his face. It was one that she easily recognized and remembered. It was the look he’d only ever had when the two of them were alone together, after their worst fights when he asked for forgiveness, and in that final moment when he had broken up with her. Like he was lost.

After everything he had done, Jane should have known better, but she could feel her heart aching. She had always hated seeing him like that when they were together and it looked so wrong on his face, especially now. It was so unlike the cold, blank glare she had seen him give in the library.

In a moment of impulse, Jane stepped out into the main pathway, and instantly, Henry turned to look at her. His expression quickly morphed into shock and then into something like fear or anger.

“Jane?” he hissed. “What are you doing here?”

Jane swallowed thickly, trying to find the words. “Just … taking a walk in the garden. What are you doing here?”

Henry stared back before saying, “You should go.”

“Why?” Jane asked.

“Because I’m not—” Henry started, his eyes narrowed in anger before he cut himself off. “Because I don’t want you here. Isn’t that a good enough reason?”

“Henry,” Jane said, hesitating as she once again searched for the words to say. “You don’t have to—"

She was in the middle of taking a step towards him before he said, “Jane,” his tone stopping her in her tracks. His expression had flattened into an icy glare. “Get the fuck out of here.”

Jane swallowed once more. She clenched her jaw and lifted her chin as she stared back into Henry’s eyes. “No.”

Henry’s face twitched for a moment, but it went back to the same glare. “So be it. I gave you a chance.”

He began to charge at her, and in an instant, he was right in front of her with his fist pulled back. Silver armor began to form around it and quickly reached up his arm, encasing him up to his shoulder.

Jane stumbled back, quickly raising her own arm as black armor reached out from her chest and quickly covered her arm. Her shield formed just in time to catch the fist, though she could tell from the power of the strike that a few more of those would put some cracks in it.

“It’s you,” Henry whispered. His eyes were wide and his mouth slowly parted, but his expression was soon covered up by his rapidly forming helmet. In seconds, he was completely morphed, but unlike in the library, his suit looked stronger, having gained a literal shine that it hadn’t previously had.

It was then that the rest of the Rangers arrived behind Henry as they raced to get to Jane, and she felt relief fill her chest as she released a breath she didn’t know she had been holding.

“Get the fuck away from her,” Anne snarled, and Henry turned his head to face them. Jane took advantage of his distraction, pushing forward with her shield to cause him to stumble back a bit, and raced around him to rejoin the others.

A growling noise came from Henry, and the earth began to shake as he backed up, rock monsters taking his place.

“_Great. This again,_” Cathy said, and they all summoned their weapons.

Jane charged in the center, pushing the line forward as she met the blows of the monsters in the middle, and the rest of the team followed, covering the sides and taking down monsters that ran at them.

“_Hey guys?_” Joan alerted them. “_I’m picking up a _lot_ of magical energy. Eldon’s absorbing the magic in the botanic gardens._”

“_Yeah. We know,_” Anna said through gritted teeth as she brought her axe down on a monster, only barely turning in time to dodge another attack.

None of them could really see Henry through the thick group of rock monsters, but they didn’t need to see him to feel the shift in the energy in the area. It almost felt like a change in the temperature, like it had suddenly gotten hotter except the heat sunk deep into their bones.

“_How do we get to him?_” Catherine shouted. She slashed down with her sword at the monster in front of her, but it only stumbled back briefly before charging forward with another attack. “_These things are way stronger, and there’s no way we’ll get through them in time._”

Cathy looked between Kat, who stood back from the front lines to shoot at any monsters that got too close to the others, and Jane, who stood at the very center and slammed her shield into the monsters in attempts to shove them back.

“_Kat, do you remember that jump you did in the library?_” Cathy said while focusing on keeping her own monsters at bay. “_Think you could do it again?_”

“_Uh, sure? Off of what though?_” Kat asked, not even hesitating as she continued to fire off shots.

“_Jane’s shield,_” Cathy said.

“_What?_” was Jane’s confused response.

“_Oh,_” Kat said as she thought it through. “_Yeah, that would work. Jane, I’m gonna count to three, and when I do, kneel and put your shield above your head. When I get on top, get ready to boost me up. Got it?_”

Jane was silent for moment, but then she said, “_Okay. Anna, can you cover me?_”

“_You got it. I just hope you know what you’re doing, Kat,_” Anna said.

“_Me too,_” Kat muttered under her breath. “_Okay, ready? One. Two. Three._”

On three, she charged towards Jane as Jane got into position, kneeling and lifting her shield above her head. Anna stepped forward to block any blows coming Jane’s way, and Kat quickly leapt on top of the shield and crouched. As Jane pushed up, Kat sprung up and easily soared above the heads of all the monsters. In the air, she saw Henry standing still, the air around him visibly vibrating. She notched and fired off two shots in quick succession towards him.

Instantly, Henry moved backwards, dodging one arrow that flew right in front of his face and catching the second. He turned to look at Kat as she landed on the other side, the air around him still wavering.

“_Oh boy,_” Kat said, and she began firing off arrow after arrow.

Henry moved swiftly, dodging most of the arrows that she fired. Those that he couldn’t, he deflected with his arms, knocking them out of the air, and all the while he was moving closer and closer to Kat.

“_Uh, guys? I could use a little help?_” Kat said nervously.

“_Jane, can you boost me too?_” Anne asked.

“_Sure, if you think you can make the jump,_” Jane said.

“_Of course I can make the jump,_” Anne said with a scowl. “_Catherine, cover me. On three. One. Two. Three._”

Anne backed out of the fight as Catherine took the blow that was headed in Anne’s direction with her sword. Then, Anne took the same movements as Kat did, running straight for Jane and leaping onto her shield. As Jane shot her up, Anne jumped forward, and she also easily landed on the other side, though with a little less elegance than Kat had.

“_I’m going in too,_” Anna said. “_Are you three gonna be fine without us?_”

“_Yeah. Just go,_” Catherine said tersely.

Anna backed out, allowing the other three to cover her escape. She shouted out a quick “_Now,_” and ran towards Jane. Catherine and Cathy struggled to keep the monsters back by themselves, and as soon as Anna got into the air, she saw a monster strike Catherine and shove her backwards. However, she didn’t have time to worry about them because soon she was on the other side, having landed right next to Anne.

They turned to face each other briefly before racing towards Henry while Kat adjusted her positioning to keep Henry between her and them.

Coming at him from three different angles, they thought they would be able to overwhelm him, and yet he still managed to outmaneuver them. Anna reached him first, and he sidestepped her as she swung down, placing her between himself and Kat. Then, as Anne tried to take the opportunity to stab at him, he twisted his body and used his arm to force her blade to glance off of him.

He grasped Anne’s shoulder as the blade passed him and swiftly raised a knee into her stomach before shoving her backwards. As Anna swung with her battleaxe once more, he again twisted and sidestepped it before kicking her in the side and forcing her to stumble away slightly. All the meanwhile, the wavering heat of the air around him never ceased, and they could feel the energy getting stronger.

Kat moved around and began shooting at him again, though her pace had slowed now that she had to avoid both Anne and Anna. Still, she managed to strike him with a couple of shots while he was distracted with kicking Anna away, and she saw him reel back in what was either the pain or shock of being hit. It was in that moment that both Anne and Anna recovered and ran in with another attempt to attack him while they had the opportunity.

This time, Anne came in with an overhand strike with her dagger. As Henry reached up with his arm to stop its arc, however, Anne switched her hand’s positioning, quickly dropping it and flipping the dagger to stab forward. Henry moved slightly in an attempt to dodge, but the dagger still managed to dig into his shoulder. Before he could react, Anne quickly yanked it back out, and he cried out in pain as blood began to flow from the wound.

Then on his other side, Anna swung down with her axe, and though he attempted to back out, it still slashed down his chest, slicing through his armor. She then quickly swapped hands on her weapon before swinging back upwards, cutting through the armor again and causing him to cry out in pain once more as the wound on his chest opened further.

Relief rushed through the three Rangers as they saw their hits finally land, but it quickly faded as they watched Henry’s wounds begin to close before their eyes. Though the wounds were still visible, the blood flow had begun to slow, and the armor had even started to close over them.

A sick, inhuman sound came out of Henry’s mouth that they soon realized was laughter.

“What? Did you really expect so little of me?” he growled, yanking out the couple of arrows that had stuck into his body. “My dear friends, I’m not even back to my full potential.”

Without lifting a single finger, even more rock monsters began to emerge from the ground surrounding not only them but also Jane, Catherine, and Cathy. The three of them had already been struggling to keep up, having been severely beaten back by the cluster of monsters in front of them, and with another line rising behind them, it was merely seconds before they were thrown to the ground, their weapons knocked aside.

Jane went down first as the strikes from a monster behind her knocked her down onto her knees. As she tried to stand up, the monster in front of her sent a kick straight to the head, and she collapsed back onto the ground.

Catherine managed to stay standing longer despite the blows. She continued to slash at the monsters in front of her, even taking a few down, but eventually the sheer number of blows that she took weakened her too much. It was a final blow to the side of her stomach that caused her to fall to the ground weakly.

Cathy was the final one left standing as she furiously beat back the attacks from all around her. She had taken remarkably few hits, but she wasn’t able to land a single scratch on any of them, and eventually, one of the monsters caught her quarterstaff and yanked it out of her hands. She stumbled forward directly into a blow that hit her right under the chin, and she was knocked out.

On the other side, the monsters began to surround Kat who was helpless to stop them. She tried to back up and fire at them. Though she was able to take a few down, there were too many advancing too quickly, and it only took a few blows to drop her to the ground.

Anne tried to race towards Kat to help her, but the newly formed monsters stopped her in her trakcs. She attempted to dodge their attacks as she ran by them, but it was impossible, and she soon caught a blow on the side of her back. She stumbled slightly and tried to continue forward, but a kick to the knees sent her sprawling on the ground.

“_No…_” Anna whispered under her breath as she saw all of her friends beaten and collapsed on the ground. She tried to slash down the monsters that had surrounded her, standing her ground despite the strikes that came down on her. Eventually though, just like the others, she couldn’t withstand the force of all the attacks, and she fell to the ground as the monsters placed their feet on her to keep her down.

“I’d always hoped I could make you see the light, Azh’Kalef. I didn’t want it to come to this, and yet here we are,” Henry said as he approached her.

He held out a hand, and a white longsword formed in it. When Anna had first seen Catherine’s sword, she had marveled at its brilliance, the light shining off the golden streaks in the metal. Seeing the blinding light that emanated from the blade that Henry held made Catherine’s longsword pale in comparison.

“Now, you will watch me bring in the dawn of a new era, an era that you have fought against for so long, and when I am finished and you see the paradise that I have created, I hope you regret everything you did.”

He flipped the sword, holding it in both hands with the blade pointed towards the earth. Anna struggled futilely under the pressure of the monsters on top of her, looking between the unconscious forms of her friends and the figure of Henry approaching her.

“I hope you regret all of the pain you’ve brought to your own kind. I hope you understand the depravity of your betrayal. I hope one day you wish for forgiveness.”

He stopped right in front of her and looked down. His helmet retracted, and Anna could see his face. It looked just like Henry’s, filled with anger, disdain, and something else that resembled hurt.

“Because I hope that one day, I can forgive you,” were the last murmured words out of Henry’s mouth as he reached forward plunged the sword into her chest. Light poured out of the sword, and Anna felt it sear through her chest, the burning sensation running through her blood. For the briefest moment, Anna almost swore that she could taste the light, hear it as it burned into every part of her body.

And then everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was a little torn on how to end this chapter, but now it's published so I can't take back hahahaha ...
> 
> Also two things:
> 
> 1) I had already (mostly) decided on how I wanted to end this chapter, but I won't lie, a decent amount was inspired by the TPK that me and my friends went through in our dnd campaign :( at least I can say that I've finished a dnd campaign lmao
> 
> 2) I didn't give any of them nicknames in their group chat bc I didn't want to turn this into a chat fic, but I think that Catherine's nickname would have been "nepotism," and it would've been set by Anne. Just a fun thought that I had while writing this


End file.
